Star Wars: Leaving A Burned Nest
by CaptainNate21
Summary: In the wake of Order 66, and with his kind on the brink of extinction, former Jedi Padawan Denley Kane decides to complete his training by himself. Running from the law, hiding from a galaxy that despises him, and encountering strange friends and foes, he realizes he must call upon both the light side and the dark side of the Force if he's going to survive.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1 – Never Forget Your First**

**Location: Toola, Outer Rim Territories  
Time: 19 Years Before the Battle of Yavin**

These things are the definition of uncomfortable. The LAAT gunships. Denley Kane had always heard that from the other Jedi back on Coruscant. Usually they were able to look past it, focus on meditation and such, ponder the universe, but being a Padawan, Denley didn't find it so easy. To be honest, he didn't even trust this thing's ability to maintain air pressure in the cabin, he figured any second the ship could give way and they'd all be ripped out into the vacuum of space. No amount of Jedi training could save him from that.

Maybe focusing on how much he hated this ship was one way to cope with where it was taking him. His first real combat mission. He wasn't sure how the other Jedi seemed so calm and stoic when facing something like this. Deafening explosions, body parts flying through the air, people screaming as they die, the diseases that stain the ground near the corpses, it was horrible to think about, yet his comrades seemed to always find their inner peace. The twenty two year old Padawan learner had excelled in his training on Coruscant, but nothing could truly prepare one for something like this.

"I sense your nervousness, Padawan." Master Hague said, concerned.

Master Hague, also a human, never shied away from reading into the emotions of his Padawan. Though at times it made Denley feel vulnerable, he knew it was for the betterment of his training, sometimes Hague was better at reading Denley than Denley could himself. His master was a much older man, early fifties if Denley remembered correctly, and with age came a strict adherence to the old Jedi traditions, following the sacred texts and code to a T.

"Calm your mind, it's practically screaming through the Force." Hague continued.

"Forgive me," Denley said, "I'm trying to concentrate, that's all."

"No," Hague said, "No need."

"What?" the Padawan replied, confused.

"War is a complicated matter..." the master said, "Focusing on one aspect of it takes away from the rest, leaving you vulnerable. There are so many moving parts, one cannot afford to ever turn their heads away from any one direction for too long, lest they forsake the upper hand and their lives."

"So, look at the bigger picture?" Denley asked, "Like a puzzle?"

"Like a puzzle." Hague answered with a smirk.

Denley wasn't completely certain he understood, but the gist of it made sense at least. The vehicle's other occupants, a squad of clone troopers, looked around at each other, probably taking away from the conversation just as much or as little as Denley had. From what he'd heard, these soldiers were the best of the best, bred for warfare, exactly for this type of thing. One of the soldiers in particular, one with purple markings to distinguish him as squad leader, was named Salem. He'd served alongside Master Hague since the start of the Clone Wars, Denley had heard too many stories about him to count.

"If it makes you feel any better, kid, just know that I got your back, I was born for this." Salem said.

"Thanks." Denley said with a smile.

Light from the outside world finally began to shine through the thin views in the LAAT's doors as it entered the atmosphere of the bitter, frigid world of Toola. The Republic had been tenacious in the last few months, pushing further and further into Separatist territory in the edges of the galaxy, striking at backwater worlds in an attempt to gain the foothold they needed to finally put an end to this costly war. For this theatre of the Outer Rim Sieges, at least for now, a massive strike wasn't necessary or practical. Instead, Denley and his team were shipped in by a lone cloaked cruiser and instructed to keep their handful of gunships high in the atmosphere, amongst the swirling winds and horrifically cold ice to hide themselves from the droid sensors.

At least the ship did a good job of keeping the cold out. After all, it was designed to keep out the vacuum of space. Turbulence rocked and slammed the ship brutally as it sped through the upper atmosphere of this bizarre world, but nobody else seemed phased by this. Denley felt that, at any moment, a massive chunk of ice would disable the ship and send them plummeting to an icy grave, or the droid sensors would pick them up and warm them up with a plasma mortar.

"One minute." one of the pilots barked over the intercom.

With that, everyone, clones and Jedi alike, prepared to disembark, sealing their armor and checking their gear as the ship gradually slowed down, and eventually came to a gentle halt at an undetermined altitude.

"Ten seconds." one of the pilots declared.

"Bay doors." the other pilot said.

It hit Denley immediately, the depressurizing of the cabin and the knife-like chill of Toola's air slicing through his armor like it didn't exist. This was it, all those years of training back on Coruscant, turning him into the ultimate warrior, it was about time to see if any of it paid off. The ship's ropes dropped, and everyone got into position, one at a time, rappelling down onto this alien world. It was impossible to see even a few inches below their feet as they lowered themselves through the thick cloud of snow and ice, but Denley calmed himself and used his training as best he could to see his surroundings, opening his mind up to everything around as to not close himself off to the nuances, as his master had instructed him.

Before he knew it, his feet touched the powdery, dusty snow which crumpled as he let go of the rope and adjusted to being on a terrestrial surface again. The massive thick mist of cold wasn't so bad here, and Denley could see his master had also just reached the ground, and nodded to his pupil. The last of the troops made landfall and checked their gear in anticipation for the fight to come.

"All clear." Salem said into his comlink.

"Teams Two and Three have successfully touched down," one of the pilots said, "Team 4 is still en route. We'll be on standby. Good hunting out there."

"Considering we're not being pulverized by STAPs, I'd say our stealthy approach paid off." Denley noted.

"Your Jedi senses told you all that?" Salem joked.

"We'd better get moving, the other teams will be waiting for us." one of the clones said.

As the Jedi and their loyal clones started off on their mission, the gunships took off just as stealthily as they had arrived.

"The cold," Hague said, "Does it bother you?"

"My equipment and training are more than a match for the temperature, master," Denley said, "I mean, for the most part."

"The heat of battle is all the warmth I need!" one of the clones said.

"In extremities such as this, one's senses can either be sharpened, or dulled. The choice is yours." Hague said.

"Well if we were fighting on a tropical island world, I don't think I'd even be tempted to complain." Denley joked.

More of Master Hague's on site training continued as the squad made their way up into a massive, rocky canyon that was covered in a thin layer of ice. As far as their intel was concerned, the electronic spikes seemed to suggest that the droids were camped out somewhere high up in this winding maze of canyons, and it was up to the four teams to form a perimeter around this camp to gather further, more hands on intel, and eventually neutralize the droid presence. The team kept close to the rough canyon wall, practically hugging it in case of snipers. There were certainly enough vantage points for the bastards, and given the fact the things weren't biological in nature made them that much harder to detect with the Force.

The unmistakable sound of a large ship rumbled over the sound of the wind. Hague and Salem stopped in place, as did the rest of the team, as everyone crouched down and tried to determine the source of the disturbance. There, just a couple hundred meters away in their air, a droid dropship hovered above the canyon, crossing perpendicular to the team, apparently not having seen them. The ship's engines changed in pitch, seeming to slow down out of sight.

"It's making a delivery to this canyon," Denley said, "Just one ship's worth of droids."

"Very good, my young Padawan." Hague said with a smile.

"So there's no factory here." Salem said, "Teams, there's a ship making a dropoff higher up in the canyon, this probably isn't where our droid factory is."

"We have eyes on the target site," one of the other teams reported, "They've got enough firepower here to knock out a couple blockade runners, at least in low orbit. It's certainly more than enough to take out our gunships."

"We'll have to take those out first, otherwise this ground missions is going nowhere." Hague said.

"I don't think the droids are just gonna let us walk up to their guns and disable them." the other team said, "Those guns are nestled behind a line of a hundred battle droids, we won't be able to get anywhere near them before they can sound the alarm and get us busted."

"Team 3 here," another clone said over the comlink, "No sign of any droids on our side, we might be able to get the drop on-"

The clone's report was abruptly cut short, followed by the screams of his comrades.

"We're compromised!" one of them shouted as audible blaster fire could be heard.

"Oh no," Denley said, "What do we do?"

"The droids are going to be on high alert now." Salem said.

"Should we just call for reinforcements?" Denley asked.

"The fleet is too preoccupied elsewhere," Hague rationalized, "the most the Republic will be able to send is a few ships at best, and if the droids are dug in too deep, we'll lose the element of surprise. We have to take out these encampments before the invasion begins, not after."

"Yeah, well, the second those droids pick up our heat signatures, we're done for." one of the clones said.

Everyone's thoughts were racing. What could they possibly do? The layout of these canyons seemed to work against them, especially considering the droids probably had it all mapped out and had most likely factored in all the best flanking positions. The comlinks buzzed a bit with the sounds of battle, it seemed all of the other teams had been spotted and engaged. It was only a matter of time before Denley's team had to make their move.

Somewhere down below, however, Denley could sense another living thing. Actually, a few more. Reaching out with his senses, he could tell that whatever these things were, they were a few levels down in one of the adjacent paths.

"What is it, Denley?" Hague asked.

"There's something else in this canyon..." Denley said, "Slow, big, lumbering... anything more than that, I don't know."

"Could be mastmots," Salem said, "They're one of the things that call this planet home."

"You think the droids know about them?" Denley asked.

"Probably." Salem said.

"Good. Then we can use them." Denley said as he started to walk in the direction he sensed the creatures.

"What? How?" one of the clones asked.

"I think I see what he's getting at." Hague said as he followed, clearly proud of his pupil.

In an effort to speed up their mission and save the remainder of their forces from certain death, the Jedi and their clone comrades wasted no time in clipping their grappling hooks to the ground and repelling down down the canyon wall to the section where the beasts were sensed. Denley found himself lagging behind the rest, for surely any moment he could lose his footing and tumble down to his death. The tough icy wall crumbled a little with each step, but eventually he was able to touch down with the rest of the team.

Denley reached out with his senses, sifting through the flakes of snow and chilly air, clearing a path to his objective. He wished his mind had a volume switch, but perhaps focusing on that too much was the problem in the first place. He let the force guide him, his instincts as well. He knew his team was putting their faith in him and he didn't want to let them down.

Within a few minutes, they had arrived. These mastmots in particular were large enough for perhaps three people to ride, and it looked like there were just enough in this herd to support the entire squad. The beasts were covered in a thick white fur, with several horns on their faces, and seemed curious about these strange offworlders. It was good, they didn't seem to consider the squad a threat.

"Alright, hear me out.." Denley began.

"You want us to hide under their fur and let them carry us into enemy territory." Salem guessed.

"You couldn't just let the kid have that one?" one of the other clones asked.

"You missed one part, thank you..." Denley said, "We can use the charges to blow holes in their defenses behind us. Bonus points if there are any bridges where they're at. It won't stop the droids but it'll slow them down for a while, buy us some more time."

"I like where your head's at, kid!" Salem said.

"As do I, very good, my apprentice." Hague said with a smile.

With that, the squad followed through with the plan. Some of the clones had a hard time getting the mastmots to cooperate, but eventually, every member of the team was able to secure a ride, two to each beast. Denley paired up with Salem, and off they went. Using their combined powers, Denley and Master Hague guided the creatures towards the enemy location. To the droid's sensors, it would appear to be nothing more than the heat signatures of a pack of native mastmots. Or so they hoped.

It didn't take as long as expected for them to arrive at the enemy perimeter. The droids were cold and lifeless, not easy to detect with the Force. Slowly and deliberately, however, the clones poked through the fur of their mastmots to get a better look. Radio silence was an absolute must, so each soldier relied on careful glances to each side to communicate. One by one, each soldier dropped a charge onto the ground, all along the enemy positions.

Denley could see a natural bridge up ahead, perfect. Now that the wind was calming, he could hear the clicking steps of the battle droids, there were a lot of them. Their monotone voices carried, it was disturbing to hear them for real, these killing machines whose only purpose in the galaxy was to butcher Jedi and Republic soldiers.

Soon enough, they were past this platoon of droids and halfway across the bridge, where Denley dropped a charge. Influencing the beasts to pick up the pace, they made great time and wound up in what they could only assume to be the droids' main position. Denley turned to Salem and nodded, tapping his lightsaber with his one free hand.

"Teams, prepare to attack on my mark." Salem said quietly into his comm.

Of course, this was not only a signal to the other teams, or to the men on the mastmots, but to the droids, and that was just what they wanted.

"Republic transmission in perimeter." a Super Battle Droid said.

"Alert, perimeter is breached, search for the clones." a Battle Droid Sergeant ordered.

"No need." Salem said out loud as he triggered his charges.

With that, everyone else triggered their charges, decimating an untold amount of droids. The thundering boom cut through the sound of the wind like a hot knife through butter, followed by the clattering of droid parts, pelting the ground like sleet. The team emerged from their mastmots and dove for whatever cover they could find, some using the beasts as cover. Aside from a few charging stations and some scattered boxes, it didn't appear the droids had done much to make themselves at home or made accommodations for any of their sentient superiors.

The droids were brutal in retaliating, blaster fire rained down on the team's position. Hunkered down as best they could manage, the Jedi and clones were delighted to hear the surviving teams join the fight as well, cutting down unsuspecting droids.

"Are you ready, Denley?" Hague asked.

This was it, true combat. He knew it was time, hell, they both did. Adrenaline surged through him, this was not a temple training exercise, one mistake would mean certain death for him and possibly his comrades. All of these thoughts hit him instantly, but it only took a fraction of that to know he was ready.

"Yes master." Denley said as he stood up first, lightsaber activated.

The brilliant light from his blade and its humming brought a grin to the young Jedi's face. Hague stood up from cover to join his apprentice in deflecting shots. Clones tossed thermal detonators from cover, adding to the carnage. The Jedi cautiously moved forward, little by little. While they couldn't read the minds of their enemies, their actions were predictable, telegraphed, it was just the amount of them that made things difficult.

When within range, Denley began to slice through the droids, his blade searing through their metal husks. The frail B1s were quite easy to cut through, very satisfying, but the B2s were a bit more problematic, more durable. A few of them swung their heavy arms at Denley in attempt to knock him out and leave him defenseless against their wrist cannons.

It seemed, however, that with each droid killed, there were three more on the way. The explosives earlier had helped, but there were still so many.

"Sir!" a clone from another team called out into the comm, "We have more explosives, let's fall back and lead them right into the blast!"

"Sounds good to me," Hague said, "Sound good to you?"

"Yep!" Denley said as he slowly stepped back, deflecting shots all the while.

The horrible shriek of a clone made Denley shudder more than the cold weather ever did. One of the clones had caught two bolts, one skimmed him in the head and the other slammed into his abdomen. At first, it seemed he was a goner for sure, but Denley could still sense some life left in him. Without hesitation, he made his way over to the soldier. Hague seemed to understand and provided cover for the young Padawan.

"I'm too banged up, kid..." the clone muttered painfully, "Fall back and blow those charges."

"We don't leave anyone behind." Denley said as he lifted the clone to his feet and supported him.

Together, the three of them successfully fell back with the rest of the team and the others. There were so many droids on their way, a steady stream of blaster bolts almost seemed like one continuous sound, a piercing shriek of war, interrupted only by another string of explosions. Effective, it seemed. Only a handful of droids remained now, and were easily dispatched by the clones' gunfire. As the last droid fell to the ground, everyone cheered and high-fived one another. They'd done the impossible, taking out such a well dug-in droid position even after being compromised.

"Looks like we caught the clankers in the middle of building up an invasion force or staging area on Toola." a clone said as he patched up the wounded clone.

"It's a good thing we took them out when we did. Good job everyone." Salem said.

"What intel were you able to gather?" Hague asked one of the clones from another team.

"These droids came from somewhere in the Quelli Sector, we're thinking Vinsoth or Dathomir."

That second planet, its name struck at something deep in Denley's memory. For some reason he vividly recalled learning about it during his time at the temple on Coruscant. Its name seemed to radiate with darkness as he pulled it from the depths of his past and tried to recall what he could about it.

"Dathomir?" Denley said, "isn't that the planet run by witches? What would the droids want with that place? Must be pretty important if that's where they are."

"It is a world clouded in the dark side of the force..." Hague said, "If that is indeed where they are coming from, then I fear they may be attempting to use the dark side to gain an advantage."

"I thought the dark side wasn't more powerful." Denley questioned.

"It isn't," Hague attempted to clarify, "I meant to imply that they may be attempting to learn what they can from the planet and its inhabitants to have the power of the force on their side as well."

"What if we went there and beat them to it?" Denley asked.

"Absolutely not!" Hague said, "We cannot expose ourselves to the corruption of those witches and their powers."

"But-"

"Enough questions, child." Hague said sternly.

Wow. Child? Denley pondered on his master's seemingly willful ignorance of these witches, the planet Dathomir, and his almost hostile treatment at the simple questioning of such things. Now that he thought about it, it didn't seem like the rest of the Jedi back at the temple were interested or even open to the idea of learning about these things, like they were above it. Well, they were above it, right? That's what Denley had been taught his whole life, the Jedi way was the only true way. Was it?


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2 – How Things Are Now**

**Location: 10 Miles Outside Ithaqua, Toola, Outer Rim Territories  
Time: 19 Years Before the Battle of Yavin**

As Denley sat down on top of one of the munition crates inside his tent, he could feel his hands trembling. He quieted them by clasping them together. This had been going on for the past few weeks, nervous tremors. The past six months had been difficult on him, a grueling battle on the frigid world of Toola, one that seemed to be coming to an end, or so he hoped. The droids had been pushed back to the major city of Ithaqua and its neighboring towns, it seemed it was only a matter of time before Republic forces finished off those stragglers and liberated the planet once and for all.

He sensed his master's presence moments before the aging Jedi master poked his head into the tent.

"Denley, are you ready to head out?" Hague asked.

"Yes master." Denley answered, standing up to collect his gear.

"What is it?" Hague asked as the two left the tent.

"I just hope this battle will be over sooner rather than later," Denley confessed, "I've been longing for the temple back on Coruscant."

"As have I," Hague agreed, "And we will return soon. Salem believes it will only be a matter of days before Toola is returned to the Whiphids. I've learned to trust his judgment. This is the life of a Jedi, without us, countless worlds would be under the thumb of evil."

"Of course," Denley said, "We're doing good work here. I just want it over already."

"We can't rush these things," Hague warned, "Patience in combat is what got us this far."

With that, the two Jedi reached the outer edge of the Republic camp, where Salem and a dozen other clones stood by. The soldiers, though their helmets emotionless, seemed to glow with excitement when the Jedi arrived on scene. Denley respected and admired that trait in these people, though not without a bit of wonder. Sure, they had been bred for war, but to actively want to take part in it?

"We've picked up several brief short range transmissions due west of camp," Salem reported, "it could be sentries probing our defenses."

"I say we pay them a visit, then!" Hague said, "Let's get going."

Denley had finally grown accustomed to the cold, in fact, this was rather decent weather compared to some of the blizzards that had struck the camp in the past. Trudging through the snow towards the last reported droid location wasn't such a big deal, though one had to be careful up here, for the snow would sometimes cover up dropoffs that led to certain death into the canyons below. That snow was deceptively deadly.

The team approached one of the ledges, marked with three little metal pins in the ground. Making sure to stay behind these pins, the team peered over the edge into a field maybe a hundred feet below, normally covered with grass but now a frozen tundra like everything else. No droids down there, however there appeared to be tracks that hadn't yet been covered with a new layer of snow yet.

"Droids could have been here as little as ten minutes ago." Hague noted.

"Let's split up, cover each direction just to make sure." Salem said sternly.

There were a handful of different ways down, but the two clearest were a slowly descending path just ahead that led right to the ground, albeit with a slight curve around the hill. The other obvious way was a series of ledges that were spaced out a few feet below one another, something even amateur climbers could conquer. It was the more direct route but not as easy as just walking down the path as he assumed Master Hague and Salem were going to.

Four of the clones followed close behind Denley, while Salem and the rest split up behind Master Hague.

"Ready for some climbing?" Denley asked with a smile as he turned back to his men.

"Uh huh." one of the clones said.

Before Denley could completely turn his head back around to face forward, he noticed something just behind the troop he had been talking to. Salem and his particular clones had their weapons aimed up at something, but Master Hague didn't have his blade ready. Strange. Denley slowed his pace to try and focus on what the clones were doing, but it didn't take him long to figure it out. All at once, the team fired their rifles, practically disintegrating the Jedi master in less than a second.

Time seemed to come to a complete halt as Denley witnessed this. Never had he felt more powerless and trapped. The once great and powerful Jedi, pummeled by blaster fire and reduced to a withered, burned husk in a moment. Even as tears flowed, he was still able to remember his Jedi training and draw his blade just in time as his own clones opened fire on him.

Deflecting blaster fire, normally an easy task, was much harder to do in this circumstance. The first few shots were instinctive, but as reality set in, it became more difficult, especially as clones from the other team joined in assaulting the young Padawan. The shock and horror of the situation was too much for even a Jedi, as Denley soon found out. One bolt caught him in his left arm, an unimaginable searing agony coursed through his body and caused him to scream, opening his defense completely, allowing a second shot to strike him and send him toppling over the edge of the cliff.

The frigid snow wasn't enough to cool the deep blaster burns, but the contrast was still horrendous. Tumbling down and striking down every single ice covered rock in his way and covering him in thick snow, it wasn't long before Denley made it down the cliff the fastest, yet most painful way, in an almost ninety degree drop straight onto the ground. The several inches of snow on the ground were probably Denley's only saving grace, cushioning but not completely dissipating the fall. He felt none of it though, as he found himself enveloped in darkness, what he assumed was death.

Funny, the Jedi teachings made it sound nicer...

_Feels like I've been asleep for years... _Denley thought to himself. _Wait, what?_

It seemed his eyes had been closed so long, they had welded themselves shut. Slowly regaining usage of his arms again, he reached up to his face and manually opened his eyes again. The flood of light was painful at first, but then again sensation itself seemed to be uncomfortable after a prolonged amount of unconsciousness. It seemed every one of his limbs creaked as they moved for the first time in a while.

As his vision slowly cleared up, he could see he was in a very primitive looking, dark, spacious hut. It certainly wasn't anything the Republic or the Separatists would have put up, how strange. That was when the young Jedi noticed a creature sitting slumped over in the corner, seemingly asleep. It was one of those Whiphids, the beings that called this place home. In his time on Toola, Denley hadn't actually seen one of them, the only one of their species he'd met was Master K'Kruhk back on Coruscant. Their long faced, tusks, and squinted eyes were very non-human and distinct, this one in the corner was no exception, an almost constant angry look on its face even when asleep.

"Hey!" Denley called out weakly, his voice like gravel.

Denley was startled by how quickly the Whiphid in the corner awoke, stood up and focused on him all in one quick motion. It poked its head out the doorway and muttered something, then looked to Denley and walked closer to him. The Jedi found himself inching back slowly instinctively as two more Whiphids entered the hut and looked at him.

"You've been out for a long time." the first Whiphid said.

"We helped induce a coma-like state to preserve your life and speed up your recovery." another Whiphid added.

"Who are you?" Denley asked, "How did I get here?"

"I don't think we should say our names," the second Whiphid said, "If you get caught, we don't want those soldiers coming after us."

"We found you out in the snow and ice right after those clones shot you," the first Whiphid continued, "We were out hunting and saw the whole thing unfold."

"I remember now..." Denley said as the previous day came back to him, "They shot my master... those clones, we were friends, we fought alongside each other for months, and they shot us like we were nothing."

The young Jedi soon found himself overcome with emotion recalling everything that happened, covering his face in shame, knowing Jedi weren't supposed to express grief like this. The Whiphids didn't seem to judge him for this, and seemed to take this as their turn to speak.

"The clones have been doing a great many things that we considered out of character..." the second Whiphid said, "They scoured the snow and ice after they shot you, we got you to safety just in time, but since there was no body, they've been tearing through the villages and cities looking for you. People have died, homes have been destroyed, and they've declared martial law and established a new curfew, all in the name of the Empire."

"The Empire?" Denley asked, confused.

"They use the same equipment, the same armor, same ships, everything," the first Whiphid said, "But everything they've done since the betrayal has been for their new Empire. The Jedi are enemies of the state, which means you're a fugitive."

"This can't be happening..." Denley began, shocked, "But if it is... you're sheltering a criminal whose very existence has caused your people to be subjugated... Why did you help me?"

"The Jedi have been good to our people," the first Whiphid said, "We wanted to return the favor. The clones' betrayal was not just to you, but to us as well. After what they have done to our people, we're only more grateful we took you in."

"However, you can't stay here forever..." the second Whiphid continued, "The Imperials have brought in someone new, someone they call Keller. He's ruthless, he seems to be quite adept at this hunting game."

"If what you've said about the Empire is true, then they won't stop until they know I'm dead." Denley concluded.

"Then go," another Whiphid said, "Our efforts would have been for nothing if you don't make it out of here. We'll be fine, we always have been."

"I will, but not while Keller is still alive." Denley declared, "He's going to continue these raids and get more innocents killed. But the Empire needs to think that I'm dead too, otherwise they'll just get someone else to take Keller's place and keep tearing this planet apart looking for me."

"What can you do?" the second Whiphid asked, "We heard about how it was your idea to take out the droid encampment on the first day of this battle. You're quite clever for someone so young."

"Heh, I'm glad somebody sees it that way..." Denley admitted, "I think I've got just the thing."

Over the next few hours, Denley remembered the advice from his late master. He fought through the shock of the entire situation and through the tears at the thought of his master's death, knowing he had to regain his composure soon if he was to survive. Time not exactly being on his side, he spent every moment both testing his strength and formulating the perfect plan. Before he knew it, he was ready to go, with only the sharp stinging pain from the blaster bolts to hinder his movement.

Sneaking into Ithaqua City wasn't easy. If the Whiphids knew about his trick with the Mastmots, surely the clones were aware of it as well, so sneaking in that way was too great a risk. With his lightsaber close, Denley trudged through the snow towards the city in the horizon. This city seemed to be far less advanced than the ones in the Inner and Mid Rims, it didn't have any kind of energy barrier to protect it from the elements, and so was subjected to the harsh cold. He hoped that the less technology meant it would be a little easier to get by undetected.

Though the skyscrapers and spaceports were still some distance away, the outskirts were within reach. Denley crept through the alleys, and it didn't take long for him to come upon these Imperials. The clones' chatter was just like it was with the Republic, but they seemed to take on a more aggressive tone, barking things back and forth to one another. There were three of them in this group, and Denley wanted nothing more than to cut them all down for their betrayal, but he restrained himself and allowed them to pass by in peace as he ducked in the shadows.

The clones are creatures of habit, this he knew for a fact. If he was going to get answers, he wanted to get them from someone he knew. It wasn't hard to scale the wall of his building he was hiding behind. The young Jedi kicked off as much snow as he could from his boots before racing across the rooftops without a sound.

_That one, _Denley thought, _the one with a good view of the edge of the city._

Not far from his current position, it looked like the remains of an old spaceport control tower had some lights and activity going on inside it. That'd be the place he would set up spotters, or a command center of sorts. It didn't appear to be occupied by anyone other than regular troopers, no commanders here, at least not right now. It also didn't appear to be heavily guarded, at least not by visible reinforcements, which probably meant that the Imperial planetary commander was probably stationed elsewhere in the city, and this was likely acting as the spot where a lieutenant would be posted. Perfect.

However, until his target poked his head out, Denley wouldn't be making his move. Making sure to take cover out of sight of the tower, all he could do in the meantime was wait and listen to the patrols in the streets below. Some discussed the purge of the Jedi elsewhere in the galaxy, confirming the Whiphid's claims, much to Denley's grief. Some others wondered out loud where their missing Jedi was. At one point, he could even hear a squad of clones breach the door of a home and threaten the residents. It made Denley sick that he couldn't help, but if all went well with his plan, he intended to make up for it.

Finally, he saw him. The one he was waiting for, flanked by two other clones as he entered the base of the tower. Denley sighed in regret, knowing what he was about to do wouldn't be easy, but it was necessary. Prioritizing stealth over speed, he made his way over to the tower in good time. The door to the tower was guarded by two clones, standing only twenty or so feet away. Raising a large rock in the air with the force, Denley chucked it at one of the clones, striking him hard in the side of the head.

"What the hell?" the clone wondered out loud, more surprised than hurt.

"You just signed your death warrant!" the other clone said as he raised his rifle and walked in Denley's direction.

Perfect. The two clones walked right where Denley wanted them, and before they even had a chance to spot him, they found themselves both being cleaved in half across their waists. The two fell to the ground, instantly dead and without much sound. The fugitive Jedi cut off his lightsaber quickly to minimize the sound, a successful ambush. It wasn't easy killing other human beings, even if they were his enemies. As he regained his composure after murdering his first living beings, he stood up and entered the tower.

Denley was impressed the lift was even functioning, it seemed more ancient than the Republic itself. It moved up to the top of the spire quite quickly and opened immediately upon reaching the top floor. Inside, six clones all appeared dumbfounded to see that the Jedi they were hunting this whole time had delivered himself to them. None had their weapons drawn in time before Denley activated his lightsaber and began butchering them.

It wasn't exactly in line with the Jedi code, striking down unarmed opponents, but with the Jedi Order gone, it seemed anything was fair game, it was survival. Denley sliced the heads and limbs off everyone in the room, their screams did nothing to slow down his slaughtering as he made his way to his target, who he saved for last intentionally. This particular clone was all too familiar to Denley, his old commander and friend, the purple marked clone Salem.

With a quick swipe, Denley hacked off both of Salem's hands and kicked him to the ground, before pointing the edge of his blade at his old friend's head. With tears in his eyes, he began his interrogation.

"Why did you do it, Salem?" Denley asked.

"You're traitors!" Salem replied through his teeth, fighting back the pain, "All of you! You lied to us!"

"What do you think we did?" Denley asked.

"You betrayed the Republic, you manipulated all of us..." Salem said, "We trusted you, and your people tried to assassinate the Chancellor!"

"That's not possible, it's just not!" Denley said, dumbfounded.

"Separatist scum, we should never have followed you..." Salem said, "But our Emperor is going to track down the rest of your kind, and Lord Vader will be his instrument. So will we."

"I'm sorry this happened to you." Denley said truthfully as he beheaded his former friend.

With the death of Salem, it became horribly quiet in the tower. Not just regular silence. It was the sound of death, if that makes any sense. A disturbing, empty quiet, where one can feel the pain and final moments of those who had just died. It hung in the air and sent chills down Denley's spine, not just because he caused it. It creeped him out, and startled him, prompting him to quickly move forward with the next phase of his plan. Gathering up some of the weapons, explosives, and pieces of armor from the dead troopers, he knew time was not going to be on his side.

It needed to look bad. That much was certain. From a safe distance, the Jedi could hear the radio chatter from the troops as they discovered the massacre in the tower. The brutality of the scene seemed to anger the troops, exactly what Denley had hoped for. The young fugitive was amused to see that the squads in the streets below had stopped harassing the locals and were frantically running around looking for their target. However, it wasn't the regular clones he was interested in taking out, not right now at least.

Tracing back the steps of some of the patrols led Denley to what looked like a big warehouse, just a little bit deeper into the city. This was surely where they were based out of. After plotting out the correct course in his head, he took aim with one of the rifles he'd stolen. A shame his Jedi teachings never included using a firearm, but how hard could it be? He picked his first target indiscriminately, one of the clones standing closer to the entrance of the warehouse, a single shot smacking the trooper straight in the chest and killing him.

It was like poking a hornet's nest with a stick. Within seconds, the patrols were all rushing towards Denley's location, mostly from further away in the city, but a few close by started taking pot shots at him. It was time to hold his ground, for now at least, waiting for the right clone to pop out. Taking cover behind some metal construction equipment on the roof, Denley returned fire when he could, usually missing but sometimes getting lucky and hitting one of the clones. Funny, these guys made it look so easy before.

More were approaching from behind, his senses told him that much. Denley quickly spun around and tossed a thermal detonator in their direction, taking out a squad of five that were attempting to scale the rooftop he was on. Denley also used this time to take out a clone sniper who was positioned just a few houses down, a lucky shot to the clone's head put an end to the soldier's days.

Finally, there he was, his distinct helmet and markings, with parts of a white cloak swaying in the wind. Commander Keller, an SMG in his hands and his sights locked onto Denley. With a flank of clone sergeants at his side, he raced towards Denley, firing in bursts as he did so.

_That's right, Keller... _Denley thought to himself, _Come get me..._

Perfect timing too, it seemed most of the clone patrols were starting to form a tight perimeter around Denley, closing in with each passing moment. Time to go! The Jedi-turned guerilla rushed along his pre-determined path, firing back when he could and tossing thermal detonators onto the clones below, thinning them out as best he could. Racing across the rooftops was difficult and stressful with all the blaster fire flying around him, but he trusted the force to lead him to safety.

"Woah hey," one of the clones called out, "I think he fell down, I don't see him anymore!"

"I want every one of these buildings searched," Keller shouted, "Breach and clear."

The clones didn't have to, though, as they all heard one of the doors slam shut just around a corner. With their weapons drawn and the chatter low, they crept up to the shack with the locked door. It was pretty small, just enough for three people to live in, if that, with just one window and one door. With the one escape route cut off, the troopers anticipated a last stand from the Jedi.

"You're surrounded, kid..." Keller called out, "Let's end this, you've taken enough lives today."

The commander's call for a surrender was answered only by the shattering of broken glass, as materials from inside the shack flew out and pummeled the clones outside, who didn't wait for the order to return fire. Simultaneously, like a firing squad, the clones all opened fire on the shack, and in less than a second, a massive explosion tore the shack apart and ripped through the clone ranks, killing everyone standing fifteen feet from the blast.

Proud that his plan worked, Denley watched from afar. He was relieved that Plan A worked. Loading up the shack with all of those explosives took quite a bit of effort and time, just enough to set in motion after the tower massacre. Looking over the carnage, through the severed limbs and scorched remains, he could see pieces of Keller, and knew his mission was a success. Whoever came to investigate would probably assume Denley had been killed in the blast, just the way he liked it.

As he made his way to the Ithaqua Spaceport, he felt he was leaving behind more than just the planet, but his old way of life and everything he knew about it.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3 – Red Horizon**

**Location: On board a transport ship  
Time: 19 Years Before the Battle of Yavin, 1 Day After Order 66**

Looking through the viewport of the transport ship and seeing Toola far behind in the distance was a relief. Even more so after making a stop on Vinsoth to take a connecting ship to his next destination. The thought of Denley's actions back on Toola haunted him, all the killing, he wanted it to be over. Taking a fight directly to the Empire wasn't exactly a good strategy, he wanted to be done fighting for now. He had to think, what was the last place in the galaxy a Jedi would go? Probably one clouded in the dark side. He recalled many conversations back on Coruscant, most with his late Master Hague, talks of dark worlds. The one that captured his imagination the most was always, of course, Dathomir.

It would be the ultimate test of his resilience and self control, to avoid succumbing to the dark side. He believed in his abilities, although they needed to be refined, perfected. It seemed that if this great betrayal had spread across the galaxy, Jedi masters would be in very short supply. The thought of leaving his training incomplete troubled him as he leaned on the wall of the transport ship. Nobody else onboard seemed to suspect who he really was, he just appeared to be another commoner heading to one of the countless spaceports in the Outer Rim, only he had no intention of making a connecting flight.

Weird, everyone back home seemed to make this planet sound so dark and evil looking. Sure, there was a slight red hue to it, but otherwise it looked like a fairly typical planet, an abundance of water and forests, quite nice! Maybe he just caught it on a good day. In any case, there were certainly worse places to find yourself on the run. A part of him hoped he would only have to go into hiding for a while, maybe this whole thing would just blow over soon. It was hard to hold onto that thought, as much as he wanted to.

The ship landed without incident, it didn't look like the Empire had locked down this sector of the galaxy just yet. He moved as inconspicuously as he could, making his way off the ship and through the spaceport, which didn't seem to have very much foot-traffic at this time. It looked like every other spaceport he'd seen, well maintained, squeaky clean walls and floors, plenty of windows showing the serene nature outside. This was probably the only real glimpse most folks ever got of the planet, but he wasn't interested in what the typical traveler would get in their brochure.

Denley did what he could to move just like the rest of the travelers, making his way out of the terminal and towards the front entrance, which of course had a fair amount of security checkpoints, manned by burly droids, probably due to the fact that it's harder to bribe them than it is an underpaid officer. What if they asked for identification? What if they reported him to the Empire? He didn't exactly feel like causing a scene either, that would only draw their attention even more than it would just falsifying his identity.

There had to be another way out of here. Sure, he knew he could just break a window and climb out, but was it worth the risk of someone hearing the noise?

_Ah damn! Did I come all this way just to get busted at some stupid spaceport? _Denley wondered to himself.

Just then, it hit him, the only other way he knew of to make it out without having to damage the facility or encounter customs. Perhaps it was time to put some of that Jedi training to use. He made his way back through the terminal and onto the enclosed bridge that led from the spaceport and into the shuttle. The flight attendant, a old, frail human woman, appeared confused to see Denley returning.

"Do you need something, sir?" the woman asked.

"Yeah, I'd like to leave through this vessel's emergency exit door." he said with a wave of his hand.

"Uh..." the woman muttered.

"I said I'd like to leave through the ship's emergency exit door," Denley tried again, "It's just back there, right?"

"Yeah you can leave through the ship's emergency exit door..." the woman repeated, "It's just back there, right."

"Thank you." Denley said with a smile, walking past the attendant and back onto the ship.

As he made his way through the ship, he did what he could to rationalize his use of a mind trick. While he was glad that he remembered his teachings well, a part of him felt guilty about manipulating a nice old lady like that. Sure, he didn't hurt her or anything, but it still felt a bit wrong.

Freedom! The emergency exit door opened pretty easily, and Denley stepped out without looking back. The spaceport tarmac was occupied by a few other ships, with only a few crew members here and there, too busy to pay any mind to Denley. If there were any droids acting as security out here, they certainly weren't close enough to spot him. He made his way to the edge of the runway, where a jungle awaited him, the perfect cover.

Only a few minutes after arriving on Dathomir, Denley successfully crept away from the spaceport without getting busted. Without much of a plan, and only his lightsaber at his side, he strolled through the alien jungle canopy. The trees looked like giant, gnarled fingers, which gave credibility to the creepiness Denley had heard of this planet having. The air was thicker out here, hotter, it seemed to stick to him as he went deeper into the foliage.

It seemed he had been walking for hours. His combat boots held their own, but some of the moisture from the foreign earth had seeped into them, weighing him down a bit and causing some discomfort with each step. The heat became almost unbearable, causing him to toss aside his Jedi cloak, allowing the rest of his body to breathe a little easier. He knew that before long, he'd have to find some water and shelter.

Denley could feel his legs practically screaming for a rest, so he gave in and took a seat on a rock that rested at the base of a short hill. Perhaps when he would feel up to it, getting to higher ground would allow him to see a river or stream of some sort? He didn't even know what exactly he was looking for on this planet anyway, aside from sanctuary.

"Stay right there..." a woman's voice said from behind.

Although shocked, Denley complied, for all he knew, this woman could have a gun on her. He slowly raised his hands in surrender, without looking back.

"Alright," Denley said, "Easy..."

"Don't you tell me how this is going to go." the woman said, now pressing the sharp end of a spear against the back of Denley's neck, "Sisters, I got him!"

Mere seconds later, three other women emerged from the trees, all carrying various melee weapons, some had spears, some had axes, all dressed in what Denley perceived as very primitive garbs. Local hunters from some tribe? They looked very human, skin colors of various complexions, but all very athletic, very intimidating. One of the women snatched the lightsaber from Denley's belt and examined it closely from every angle.

"What kind of device is this?" the curious warrior asked.

"It's clearly some type of weapon!" another of the sisters answered.

"It has no blade!" the warrior with the lightsaber argued.

"It's a lightsaber..." a third sister noted, "This is a Jedi."

"Jedi..." the first sister said as she pressed the spear harder against Denley's neck, "Your kind have been nothing but misguided crusaders to our people, bringing death and destruction with you every time! We have to dispose of him."

"Oh come on!" Denley said, "Do you even know what's happened?"

"What do you mean?" one of the sisters asked.

"I take it you people don't have holopads, so you're a bit behind the times on current events..." Denley began.

"Do not insult us, Jedi!" the spear sister said angrily.

"I meant no offense," Denley continued, "Our troops turned on us, gunned us down. We're now considered enemies of the state, and I don't know why. The Republic is now some kind of Empire, or something, I don't know much about it honestly. This all happened yesterday, I've been on the run ever since."

"Why did you come here?" one of the sisters asked.

"Would you look for a Jedi here?" Denley replied.

"You shouldn't have come here," the spear sister said, "You people are trouble, I won't let you hurt anyone else."

"The other Jedi told me about this planet being home to the witches." Denley said, "They told me to stay away from them, they said they were users of the dark side, evil, cunning creatures. But something tells me they were just afraid that the witches were more experimental with the force, not bound by the Jedi way, I think perhaps it was a stubborn thing on their part. I wanted to find out for myself."

With that, Denley got the courage to turn his head to the sister who held his life in her hands. She seemed to respect his boldness, and pulled the spear a bit further back, giving him room to breathe.

"You belong to this race of witches, do you not?" Denley asked.

"We do." she answered.

"Teach me your ways, please." Denley requested, "My master is dead. I'm just a Padawan, I have so much more to learn, and nobody to teach me."

The sisters looked around at each other, all without a word, yet appearing to understand one another silently. It didn't take them long to reach a conclusion.

"No." the spear sister said, "You belong to us now."

"What does that mean?" Denley asked.

The other sisters moved quickly to restrain the defenseless Jedi, binding his hands together very tightly with unnerving speed and accuracy. One of them formed a leash and tied it around Denley's neck like a dog's collar, and bound it to the restraints on his hands. The pattern in these ties seemed intricate, even with the force at his side, it would be quite difficult to break free. He tried to focus on one of the knots, but received a harsh slap in the face before he could make any progress.

"You try to use your powers on your restraints again," the spear sister said, "And I will put you down."

"It was worth a shot." Denley joked.

"Come." another sister said as she tugged on his leash and led the way.

It was humiliating, being led around like some animal. He could feel their glares on him as they made their way through some obscure path in the jungle, very well hidden from the casual observer. His legs didn't seem to want to continue, but with a few pushes from the girls and tugs from the lead warrior, it was impossible to stop without pissing them off, which was something he wasn't eager to do in his position.

"Do you ladies have any water?" Denley asked, "It's been-"

Without warning, the spear sister spun around to face Denley and smacked him across the face with the blunt end of her spear, then raised the sharp end right to his eye as he regained his composure.

"You do not talk, Jedi..." she said sternly, "You belong to us now, we will give you food and water when you think you need it."

"Sister Kellt," the leash holding woman said, "We can't have him passing out on us before we get back home."

The spear woman, Kellt, seemed to reluctantly agree, sighing as she went through her tiny satchel and pulled out a canteen that appeared to be made out of animal skins. He handed it to Denley without looking him in the eye, as if to make her disdain even more obvious. He sipped from it as much as he could, it was lukewarm and gross, but it got the job done. He didn't manage to get a whole hell of a lot before it was snatched away.

"Don't get greedy." Kellt said as she put the canteen away, "Break's over, let's keep moving."

"Tika cares for this one," one of the other sisters teased, "She'll probably want him first."

"Stop." the leash holding girl, Tika, said as she blushed.

Denley knew better than to voice his question out loud. Kellt noticed this and smiled.

"You learn your place fast, Jedi..." she said, "As we said, you belong to us now, and our tribe is in need of men. We need to continue the bloodline if our people are to survive."

"We've never mated with a Jedi before." one of the sisters said.

"Wonder what kind of offspring he would offer us." another sister wondered out loud.

Was he going to have any say in this? Maybe coming here wasn't such a good idea after all. Before too long, the group pushed through one last piece of foliage and came to a clearing where the witches had made their home. A cluster of huts dotted on a ledge that overlooked the jungle canopy below, it appeared they were higher up than Denley had previously thought. There were dozens of these huts, it looked like each one was meant to hold three or four folks in it, and they formed a semi circle around the ledge, with a few rows going back, some elevated on raised earth or stilts.

There were a lot of villagers here, a wide variety of faces young and old. Some were of the warrior type, tough and heavily armored, but some appeared to have different roles in this camp, caring for children or working on the structural integrity of the huts. One thing though, was that all of the men were certainly in a similar predicament to Denley, forced into servitude, none of them looked very happy to be where they were. There weren't many of them, he could only see two walking about under close guard, and there was one tied up in a shack.

"Welcome home." Kellt said, "You may speak your questions if you wish."

"What do your men do in this camp?" Denley asked, "Aside from being used for reproducing."

"Menial tasks mostly," another sister answered, "Cleaning, washing clothes, tending livestock, and we sometimes trade them for valuables."

"I see..." Denley said, "So they're slaves."

"You do not come to our world and judge our ways, Jedi." Kellt scolded, "You want to learn our ways? This is it. Come, we'll get you settled in."

These witches appeared to be simple villagers to the untrained eye, a common sight on other worlds. They were, however, very strong with the Force, all connected with some kind of neutral alignment, despite their savage ways. It was interesting to say the least. Some appeared to guide the growth of plants by using the Force, some recited prayers in small groups to invoke some kind of mystical power, and some of the children even played using a very limited form of levitation to pass a ball around. There didn't appear to be any masters here, not plural at least, just people in a deep connection with the Force and with nature.

As he was led further into the camp, he couldn't shake the feeling that something was just around the corner, something with ill intent. He stopped and tried to focus on whatever this entity was. The witches didn't appear to like this very much, as they spun around, weapons ready. Now he had the attention of all, as they stared at him with curious and confused looks.

"Keep. Moving." Kellt said as she pointed her spear at Denley's face.

"Something's coming." Denley said, "Wait, there's more than one."

"Is this some kind of Jedi trick?" one of the sisters asked.

"No, shut up and keep your eyes open," Denley said, "I think we're about to be in trouble."

"Somebody's about to be in trouble..." Kellt warned.

"No seriously, SHIT LOOK OUT!" Denley shouted.

None of the sisters took the foreign Jedi seriously, not until a spear struck one of the sisters in the neck, killing her instantly. Even as her blood sprayed through the air and her corpse hit the ground, it still didn't feel real, but it was, and he knew it. People began screaming as a group of hostile witches jumped through the jungle canopy ahead and began rushing at the camp, tossing spears and rocks as they sprinted, cackling in horrible voices all the while.

Some put up a fight, and were successful in taking down one or two of these attackers, but most were caught off guard and unprepared, being cut down by spears and burned by lightning shot from the fingers from these psychotic witches. Denley couldn't believe he was going to have to pick a side in this, considering he'd just been enslaved and all, but it was either that or die a horrible death.

Denley turned to Sister Kellt, and after winking at her, pulled on the leash as hard as he could, forcing her to tumble towards him, allowing him to kick her directly in the stomach. She gasped in shock and pain, allowing him to kick her legs from out underneath her, dropping her to the ground in a heap, where he finished the deal by stomping on her face, knocking her unconscious and freeing him for the moment.

One problem amongst the rest, he didn't know which of the sisters had his lightsaber, and with the attackers getting ever closer, he came to realize he'd have to rely on other means in order to survive. Taking up Kellt's spear, Denley charged at the nearest witch, who seemed to be taken aback that a male was challenging her in combat. Her face was painted pale white, and the black makeup around her eyes appeared to make them more sunken in, it was kind of creepy, probably the intention. The two clashed weapons, and although this one was well rehearsed in combat, her bloodlust opened up her attack to plenty of counters.

With each one of her strikes, Denley was able to block and then get in two good smacks with the spear, but she didn't appear to be letting up. He sighed as he realized she wasn't going to relent until she was dead. Accepting this, he batted her spear aside in one hard swipe, then jabbed the sharp end of his spear right through her throat, blood gushing all over his weapon as he tore the weapon free and let her collapse to bleed out.

Two more witches, now furious that a man killed their sister, joined in the fight, shrieking blood curdling screams as they battled their first Jedi. It was difficult, but not impossible, finding easy openings in their offense. Kicking one of their knees out allowed him to focus on the other sister, who he used the blunt end of his spear to crack against the side of her head, killing her too. Before the other sister could retaliate, he tightened the Force around her windpipe and crushed it in a moment, killing her as well. By now, the attacking witches had stopped their assault on the village and were now fixated on Denley. Two more rushed at him, thinking they could avenge their fallen sisters.

"I don't want to kill any more of you people!" Denley shouted, "Take your fallen and leave in peace!"

"NEVER!" one of the fighters screamed.

One of the sisters unleashed bolts of lightning at Denley, who wasn't able to react in time to repel them. Electricity violently coursed through his body, it felt like hundreds of daggers shooting through his veins and bones, and he knew he was vulnerable now. Pushing with all of his might, he called upon the Force with what he had and launched the two sisters, along with another one close by, several feet away, where they slammed hard onto the ground. Denley gasped for breath and tried hard to fight back the anger that was boiling inside him.

Instead of unleashing something fatal, he lifted massive amounts of sand from the ground and formed a miniature sandstorm that surrounded them in every direction and pelted them with heavy and painful chunks of sand. They tried to push their way through it, but he was stronger, thickening those parts of the storm and sending the grains of sand harder at them, he knew it had to hurt, and he could hear them screaming in agony, begging for mercy. He kind of liked it, it felt powerful, getting back at them for what they'd done, but before he could truly enjoy it, he felt sick to his stomach, knowing he had taken pleasure in tormenting these people. He decided they'd had enough, but wasn't going to just let them out so they could continue their attack, so he slammed the remaining sand down onto them, knocking all three of them out cold.

The young Jedi looked around and saw that he really did have everyone else's attention, even the hostile witches, who were standing idly by in horror and fear at what they'd just witnessed. The other sisters, the ones who'd taken him hostage earlier, seemed hesitant to put him back in their custody.

"Sisters from another tribe," Denley said, happy to have the spotlight, "I didn't want to kill three of your people but you gave me no choice. Be grateful it was just three. Take your dead and your wounded back to your home, and do not return, or you will not be given the option to leave in peace."

The hostile witches seemed to be confused at taking orders from this man, even though he had shown his power and mercy. It frustrated him a bit. He turned to the nearest of them and used the end of his leash as a whip, swiping it hard through the air and cracking against her skin numerous times as she cowered in pain.

"I SAID GO, GODDAMMIT!" he screamed, "GO, GET OUT OF HERE, YOU THINK I'M PLAYING AROUND?!"

With that, the survivors of the hostile tribe gathered up the dead and wounded and hurried back into the jungle where they came from. With that, he still had this village to deal with, so he continued.

"Now, you..." Denley started, "I could have left you bitches to die, but I didn't, because I was telling the truth earlier. I came to this planet for knowledge. You people have a connection with the Force that I want to understand. I ask that you treat me, and the other men of this tribe, as equals. If you do, I will protect your tribe like I did just now. If you can't do that, then best of luck to you, I'll be on my way, but I'm sure as hell not going to be your sex slave. What'll it be?"

With Kellt still unconscious from her ass beating earlier, the other sisters looked to the next eldest warrior for approval. It was the one who had shown him compassion earlier, Tika. She approached Denley and extended her hand for a handshake.

"I can speak with the elders later, but I will plead your case to make sure that you are one of us now," she said with a smile, "Thank you for your help. Maybe you Jedi aren't all so bad. What's your name?"

"Denley Kane." he answered, accepting her handshake.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4 – Everywhere and Nowhere**

**Location: Zoni Tribe Village, Dathomir**

**Time: 19 Years Before the Battle of Yavin, 2 Days After Order 66**

"This one should be pretty easy for a Jedi," Tika said, "But you can still learn from this."

Denley hoped she was right. He found himself sitting amongst five other witches, all forming a circle around a patch of soil and under the protection of an animal skin tent. It was quite dark, the sisters made sure of that, he guessed it helped them somehow. They'd sat him down here without telling him what exactly he was supposed to do, kind of unorthodox since he didn't even know what this ritual was supposed to entail. It just looked like a container of earth sitting on the ground.

Nobody else spoke a word, it was now completely silent in the tent as everyone focused on what they were supposed to be doing. Except for Denley, of course, who looked around at the witches, confused. In response, Tika lifted her head up at him and opened her eyes.

"Quiet your mind, Kane..." she said, "It will become clear soon, but only if you listen to your sisters."

He politely nodded and tried to open his mind up to whatever the hell they were trying to do. To him, nothing else outside of this tent existed, this was everything now, and that helped a little bit. It wasn't the soil itself the sisters were focusing on, it was something underneath.

_If this is a dead body or something, I'm leaving... _he thought to himself, before remembering his discipline and refocusing.

But it wasn't a dead body, it was something small and alive. Not conscious, but alive nonetheless. The other sisters appeared to be using their powers to move this thing, manipulate it up towards the surface, he could feel the soil underneath it crumbling and giving way. They couldn't do it alone, though, as something appeared to be hindering their process. Insects. He knew their place in the force, skittering around, very unpredictable and strange. These things were drawn to whatever was making its way up to the surface.

Denley held them off as much as he could, collapsing bits of soil onto some, influencing others to back off, making some fight one another, allowing whatever this was safe passage to the surface. Finally, it popped up through the dirt, a plant, budding with some kind of red fruit. The sisters collectively broke their focus and began to pick at the plant.

"What is this thing?" Denley asked.

"Ruma plant," Tika explained, "It's a strange plant, it grows in cavernous lairs far below the ground to protect itself from pests. When they become too big, they break out of their lairs and work towards the surface, but are usually destroyed by these bugs. When it becomes time to harvest, we usher it to the surface and try to get it safely past the insects that would otherwise tear it to shreds. It helps the survival of our tribe and encourages us to work together with our powers."

"Now that we have picked it clean," another sister added, "We will ensure its safe return to its lair below, where it will continue to help our people for years to come."

"This was a great harvest today!" Tika said, "Usually the bugs do a lot more damage than this, I guess we have you to thank for that."

"You girls deserve the credit," Denley said, "I was just following your lead."

Light began to creep into the tent as the entrance flap opened up, allowing Sister Kellt to enter, her face bruised and swollen from her embarrassing defeat the other day. She tried to avoid making eye contact with Denley, no doubt ashamed to have been knocked out by an unarmed, restrained opponent, one who happened to be a man.

"How did we do?" she asked the group.

"See for yourself!" one of the sisters replied, "The bugs didn't steal any of them from us this time!"

"All thanks to Denley!" Tika added.

"Ah..." Kellt said, "That's good. He can help us with the next harvest then, it would be a big gesture. I'd like to have a word with him, if he's not needed currently."

"I guess I can spare a few moments." Denley said as he stood up and stepped outside with Kellt. A group of about seven other witches were gathered at the boundary of the camp, all armed to the teeth and waiting, presumably for Kellt.

"Look," she began, "We appreciate you helping us the other day. You can handle yourself in a fight, and we have one coming up."

"You guys in the habit of picking fights with other witches?" Denley asked.

"Not other witches, no..." she said, "Droids, Separatists to be precise. They have a base not far from here, they're building droids in some kind of factory and shooting at anyone who comes near it. They've killed one of our sisters and wounded several others."

"You're going to attack a Separatist camp head on?" he asked.

"We can't afford to ignore it..." Sister Kellt reasoned, "If the factory attracts the attention of the Empire, it would be a disaster for us. We were going to do it alone, but then you showed up. With the help of a Jedi, we think we can take them on, rid Dathomir of their presence forever. Your kind fought against them for years, it should feel natural now." she reasoned.

"Only if we have a deal..." Denley began, "Tika said the elders will decide if I can stay indefinitely. I want to be sure that the risk is worth it."

"Is that it?" she asked.

"I also want you people to free the men you have here, give them a choice in what happens with them."

"That's a big request." Kellt stated.

"You're free to deal with that droid camp by yourselves then," Denley said, "I'll hit the road and figure it out as I go, no skin off of my back. Lots of luck, ladies."

"I didn't say we couldn't do it..." Kellt sighed, "Alright, I'll have a word with the elders now."

"Do it," Denley said, "You're all lovely ladies, maybe some of the men will want to stay and experience some more of that Zoni charm."

"Don't push it." Kellt said as she walked off in the direction of the elders, with a slight smirk on her face, no doubt trying to hide her amusement.

Over the course of an hour while waiting, Denley got to learn a lot about the witches, for example, they preferred their men to be clean shaven. Also they all seemed to want to do it for him, always with some kind of very sharp weapon that had probably been used to kill beasts or even other witches. After what seemed like an eternity of first politely declining, then gradually trying to retreat, Sister Kellt returned with the other armed sisters. As she approached, the sisters pestering Denley all stopped what they were doing and quietly returned to the tent to continue the harvest.

"The Elders have reluctantly agreed to your terms..." Kellt said, "It is unheard of for a male to make demands to them, even more impossible for them to obey said demands, so you had better hold up your end of the deal."

"I've taken out hundreds of droids," Denley said, "I can do it again. One thing you might not have given thought to though, what if they send more droids to come back and finish you guys off? I can't let that happen."

"Kane, you underestimate your sisters." Tika said, emerging from the tent.

"Many have attempted to conquer us, none have succeeded..." Kellt said, "These Separatists will be no different. We live in the shadows, we are everywhere and nowhere. As long as there is a Dathomir, there are the Nightsisters. These invaders settle on our land without our permission, pretend to be our lords, they must pay with their lives. You will be our instrument, Kane, trust in your sisters."

"Alright then," Denley said as he grabbed his lightsaber, "Let's do this."

"Don't use your blade..." one of the other sisters said, "You handled yourself well without it the other day, and the day may come where you don't have the option."

"Besides," Tika said, "If the droids' remains are discovered with lightsaber damage on them, they will know a Jedi is hiding here, and then there will definitely be a counterattack."

"Alright fair enough," Denley said as he put the saber back on his belt, "Got something else for me then?"

"You can use one of my staffs!" Tika said, excited as she rushed to her home tent.

"Her eagerness about you is, concerning..." Kellt said.

"That sounds like jealousy." Denley said.

"Ugh no, you are hardly the ideal mate..." Kellt replied, disgusted, "You talk too much. You can be her problem though, if she so chooses."

"Ooooh Sister Tika can finally have her man without having to enslave him!" one of the other sisters said, "She always was a bit more adventurous that way."

"Yeah getting consent from a free man sounds really adventurous..." Denley said sarcastically.

The well carved wooden spear was slipped into his hand from behind, startling him a little bit as he turned and saw Tika handing over the weapon, excited to be passing it to a Jedi. The weapon had a grip cut into it about halfway along the weapon, and had a very long, metal blade at the end, probably just sharp enough to pierce the metal plating of a battle droid. The weight was perfect, it twirled in the air just right and was long enough to put plenty of distance between himself and the target.

"I hope you girls plan on going in there with more than just some spears and axes." Denley said as he continued examining his weapon.

"We have our powers as well of course," Kellt said, "As well as the help of some of the fauna of Dathomir."

"It'll have to be enough," Denley warned, "These droids shouldn't be underestimated."

"We have a Clone Wars veteran with us," Tika said, "I think we'll be fine!"

Together, Denley, Tika, Kellt and seven other Nightsisters made their way towards their target, noiselessly darting their way through the foliage, silent as the night that blanketed the already dark atmosphere of Dathomir. He studied their movement as much as he could, it was impressive how stealthy yet quick they were, reminding him there was still a lot to learn from these nimble-bodied warriors.

Before too long, Denley could tell they were getting close, as the not-so-distant sound of heavy machinery began to bounce off the trees and rumble through the ground. Flashes of bright orange light accompanied many of the rumblings, and it didn't take long for the factory to come into view. It was in an artificial canyon, probably dug hundreds of meters into the surface to serve as a visual dropoff and hide it behind the canyon. However, this led to an obvious weak point where intruders could peer almost directly down from above.

The facility was massive, perhaps the size of an average Corellian sports stadium, with three tall pillars on the roof, likely containing overwatch and the upper levels of management. The factory appeared to be in full effect, churning out a couple batches of battle droids every five or so minutes. Was this the continuation of the bloody, costly Clone Wars? Or could it be a new threat altogether? In any case, Denley knew at the very least that it wouldn't be **those **particular droids doing anything against civilians, as they had been known to do so in the past.

"We've only got one shot at taking this thing down the right way." Denley said as he carefully looked over the target.

"The longer we wait..." Kellt scolded, "The more droids we'll have to fight."

"Bad odds are bad odds," Denley began, "If the enemy's odds are already stacked, what harm can it do to help our odds for a change?"

"More planning is the way to go." Tika agreed.

Together, the team of Jedi and witches scanned the facility from top to bottom, from various altitude and angles, working as quickly as they could. A few of them deduced the easiest entrances, others checked for quick exits, some for structural weak points, troop movements, loud noise patterns, anything to give them the edge over the clankers. Once satisfied with the data collected, Denley nodded to the girls, it was time to go.

Armed with the staff that his friend Tika had given him, Denley found the closest thing to a blindspot that he could manage with all three of those spires providing overwatch. With that narrow window, he braced himself for the jump down to the factory below, guiding his path and speed through the air with the Force, just as the sisters did behind him, all quietly yet quickly descending towards their various targets.

Denley landed with only a slight thud, only a couple dozen meters away from one of the bigger assembly lines. From his position, it appeared this one was being used to manufacture tanks and other vehicles of similar sizes. Thankfully this process seemed to take longer than the batches of battle droids being churned out on another level. Hopefully the sisters headed there were prepared for a decent sabotage, otherwise they'd have a couple hundred active battle droids to deal with.

The young Jedi left the cool outside air behind him, stepping into the threshold of the assembly line's entrance, and found himself bombarded by an intense heat from the complex machinery inside, as well as the near deafening sound of welding mechanisms, spinning gears, and crashing metal, bouncing off the walls and ringing in his ears. The sound was good, it seemed it would likely cover up any of the work Denley planned to do.

He tucked himself tight against the wall and scanned the ceilings and walls for any cameras or motion detectors. He spotted one directly above his head, making him question the judgment of the genius who put it somewhere it couldn't monitor the one entrance that an intruder could use. It had two lenses, probably just in case one was to fail on them, which gave him an idea. Shattering the camera aimed in the direction of the back of the assembly line, he then forced the remaining camera to point as far to the right as it could without breaking. On the off chance they suspected a downed camera was due to an intruder, they may have second thoughts since the other camera is intact, albeit moved aside a bit, since most intruders would certainly destroy both on sight.

With the cameras now out of the picture, Denley reached out with the Force and guided a large load lifter onto the assembly line, right in front of the next tank to be completed. The lifter was cumbersome, it appeared to have parts salvaged to complete it, including mismatched feet, but eventually he got it in place, blocking the tank and scraping against it, causing massive damage to the hull, not to mention causing a pile up with the tanks behind it.

Next up, Denley focused his efforts on the thin steel arms above and off to the side of the assembly line, the parts doing all the work, putting the pieces together and welding when needed. There were lots of these things, positioned at different angles and heights, each with lightning fast movements, clasping their clawed ends and bending into place. He turned them against their nature, repositioning some to quickly impale the hull of some tanks, making some pick up certain parts and slam them against the tanks or against other arms, and welding deep holes into strategic spots on the tanks.

By now, the continuing belt was forcing the pile up to a breaking point, making some vehicles topple over onto the floor, making a massive noise that could be heard even over the heavy machinery. The ones left on the assembly line were completely unsalvageable, riddled with damage from the misdirected arms. He knew it was only a matter of time before something came along to try and stop him.

As one final middle finger to the droids, Denley reached out with the Force and plucked some unused fuel tanks from further along on the assembly line. With the welding arms still active, he violently threw the fuel tanks at the intense open flames and had only a brief moment between himself and death, as the room erupted in a sea of flame and debris. Even from his hiding spot behind the outside wall, he still lost his footing and crashed onto the cold steel ground headfirst. After gathering himself and heading back to the room, he could see the explosion had permanently shut down this level, not just stopping every machine in it, but blowing a massive hole in it, one that ripped through several adjacent rooms and blew apart the ceiling and floor.

They definitely noticed that.

Once his ears stopped ringing, Denley noticed a loud, constant clattering outside, and when he looked to see the source, realized some of the sisters had forced a handful of batches of battle droids to go plunging over the side of the factory, down hundreds of feet to the hard canyon floor below. He hoped it would be enough. A commotion could be heard in the spires, as droids became alert and began to open fire on the sisters who had broken in to take out the watchtowers and high command.

The only other team of witches had gone to cut off any reinforcements by blocking the way with debris and busted doors, that way they could all be dealt with separately. Denley hoped those sisters succeeded, but had no way of knowing for sure, not unless the droids were able to find a way around the new barriers between the various sections of the factory, in which case it'd be too late to do anything about it.

Denley braced himself for a fight, and it's a good thing he did, as he could hear a swarm of droidekas and Supers on their way, he had hoped those were sounds of the past echoing back to him, but no, they were certainly on their way. Even as the droidekas were spinning down one of the halls towards him, the Super Battle Droids began to rain blaster fire down on him, surely in an effort to protect the vulnerable rolling droids are they approached with lightning fast speed. The young Jedi knew this was a losing fight, so while ducking behind the wall near the entrance to the factory, he quickly deduced the quickest possible escape route.

A quick but careful jump down to the floor below was all it took to temporarily buy Denley the time he needed to link up with one of the other groups of Nightsisters, who had just finished pushing another batch of droids off the factory's edge. Using the Force to cushion his fall, Denley arrived behind some of the droid reinforcements, then used his staff, guided by that same Force, to decimate them. Knocking the heads off some of the standard droids, impaling the Super Battle Droids through the red sensors on their chests, and picking up the droidekas to slam against one another.

With this part of the factory's exterior temporarily clear of droids, Denley approached Tika and the two other Nightsisters he had linked back up with.

"Nice moves!" Tika said, "You know, for a guy."

"If I didn't know any better..." Denley said, "I'd say I'm starting to grow on you! In any case, the production line upstairs is totally wasted, how'd you girls do down here?"

"I'd say we've taken out about fifty or so droids so far," Tika began, "Plus we disabled about twenty or so others, they're still inside but we shouldn't have to worry about them."

"Good!" Denley exclaimed, "What about the others?"

"We did our part," one of the other sisters answered, "The hallways along the southern portion of the factory are totally blocked off."

"They'll have to either come through one at a time," Tika said, "Or wait for us to come by and finish them off. Either way, we have them at a disadvantage."

"I'd say we make a pretty good team," Denley said with a smile, "Maybe there is hope for you yet."

With that high note came an unexpected explosion on the south wall, just underneath where Denley and the sisters were standing. It didn't take them long to figure out what had just happened, but to be sure, they peered over the edge, only to visually confirm that not only had the droids broken out, but they appeared to be figuring out the best way to scale the wall. It seemed now the trap had flipped on them, now Denley and the sisters were cut off from the ground floor by halls of wall to wall droids, with more scaling the walls trying to get to them.

"Not going to lie," Tika said, "This wasn't part of the plan."

"In other words..." Denley said, "We're screwed?"

"Oh I definitely didn't say that..." Tika said.

"Didn't I tell you to trust your sisters?" Sister Kellt said.

Startled, Denley turned to see his biggest enemy at the camp, Sister Kellt, standing right behind him. It seemed not only had she succeeded in her part of the mission in the spires, but she had also managed to sneak past his senses and catch him off guard, all within the span of a few minutes. Amazing!

"Oh hey Kellt!" Denley said, trying not to sound startled, "Um, yeah you did say that, but the droids have literally found a way around our plan, and they're coming to kill us. Does this mean I shouldn't have trusted you?"

"No," she said with a grin of victory, "It means you should have realized we had a Plan B."

The droids scaling the wall didn't get very far at all, as they soon found themselves to be the sole targets of something much bigger and more frightening than a witch. Howling through the dense foliage of Dathomir, cutting through the air like a saber through metal, the giant menacing beasts emerged. Thick, brown, leathery and bumpy hides, there was no denying what it was, and thankfully it was on Denley's side.

The Sisters took notice of his shock.

"You know the Rancor are native to Dathomir, yes?" Tika said.

"I just, uh, I've never seen one in person..." Denley said in amazement, "They're beautiful, you know, in a terrifying way."

He wasn't lying. The legendary beasts moved with unparalleled speed, quite unexpected actually, dashing towards the droids that were on the wall, picking them off one by one and pulling them to pieces. Other rancors slammed their fists through the open holes in the wall of the factory, pummeling and crushing any droid stupid enough the come anywhere near those giant clawed fists. Even the airborne battle droids weren't safe from the wrath of the rancors, as they too found themselves snatched up in their unforgiving clutches and torn to bits. Down far below, Denley could see other rancors pulling apart the AAT's that had made it off the line earlier in the day. It was quite a sight to behold.

"Like I said," Tika said, "More planning is the way to go. Don't ever put all your faith in Plan A. I'd say you still have a lot to learn from us!"

"So what was this?" Denley asked, putting his staff aside, "Just another lesson?"

"Everything is a lesson." Tika answered with a smile. The other sisters seemed to get some kind of amusement out of the whole situation.

For the next couple of minutes, Denley, Tika, Kellt and the other sisters watched the show below without a word, watching the rancors do their work, ripping apart every droid in sight. Once they were done, taking out the rest was much easier, clearing out all of the hallways, and leaving the factory in such an amazing state of disrepair that it could never hope to recover from. They took their time marching back to the camp, rancors in tow, all of their ranks still intact, witches and all. Nobody said a word, the whole walk back. They all knew it was a big day, not only had they taken out an entire droid factory and rid their world of Separatist presence, but they had truly accepted a Jedi within their ranks, and secured his freedom in doing so.

Most unexpected, however, was Tika taking Denley's hand during the walk back. He paused for a moment, then continued walking with her, the two sharing a moment of both respect in their fighting abilities, and their interest in one another. It was unlike anything he'd experienced before, and he kind of liked it.

This is a strange world.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5 – What Could Happen**

**Location: Zoni Tribe Village, Dathomir**

**Time: 17 Years Before the Battle of Yavin, 2 Years After Order 66**

"The view never gets old." Denley said with a smile.

He wasn't lying. Only a twenty minute walk away from the village, a cliff edge provided quite a nice and relaxing view of the jungle canopy below for what seemed like miles, with mountains and even a lake in perfect view, like a painting. He wondered if he was the only outsider to have seen this very view, but then again, after spending two years with these people, he felt less and less every day that he even was an outsider.

"I've seen it so many times," Tika said as she sat down next to Denley, "I know every detail of it. It's static, sometimes I take it for granted, but not when I see it with you."

"Why's that?" he asked.

"You have a totally different perspective on everything." she explained, "It's like getting to relearn how I see the world. It's refreshing, nothing like spending all my time with the others."

"Well I'm glad I can be good for something other than my Jedi abilities for once!" he said jokingly.

A distinctly mechanical screech filled the air, it really stood out amongst the sounds of the nature that surrounded the village. High above, an unfamiliar looking one-man starfighter ripped through the air, its spherical viewport seemed to resemble an eye furiously scanning the area as it maneuvered with great precision. To Denley, it sounded like it utilized some type of ion engine, and the vessel had a very dark appearance that really stood out from the Separatist ships he was used to seeing.

"Imperial," Denley said, "If I had to guess."

"What do you think they're looking for here?" Tika asked.

"Honestly probably not me," he assumed, "They'd probably send more than just one ship for a Jedi. They're on the lookout for something though, maybe that factory we took out when I first found you guys."

"In any case, we should probably try to keep a low profile as long as they're around." Tika reasoned.

A commotion from far below halted their conversation. Even though they both heard it, neither could determine what exactly caused it. It sounded like something big was fleeing from something, fast, not worrying about how much noise it made, followed by voices trailing not far behind it. Denley and Tika both looked at each other and knew they were going to have to investigate. Whatever was pursuing the large creature wasn't going to be focusing on the cliff the two were on, as now the commotion had passed it, so they quickly began to scale down the side of the cliff.

"Bet I'll beat ya there." Tika said with a wink.

"Don't slip on your way down, girl." Denley replied as he maneuvered his way down.

In the two years he'd spent on Dathomir, Denley liked to think he had learned quite a bit about not just climbing, but doing it quickly and quietly, it made hunting so much easier. With his stone-tipped spear safely stashed away on his back, he carefully made his way down, trying not to be distracted watching Tika go down as well, she was so nimble and fluid.

_Cute too... _He was willing to let **some **of the Jedi teachings go in the two years since the Order vanished. Some of those teachings couldn't be forgotten though, as he could see the path she was taking, almost as if it were written out for him. In that path, a protruding stone, to the naked eye, a perfectly good grip for climbing, but he could see how loose it was.

"Hey," Denley said, "Watch that-"

As if on cue, as Tika grabbed onto the stone and put her weight onto it, it slipped from the cave wall, causing her to stumble and lose her balance. With his instincts kicking in, Denley dove to her and managed to catch her, making sure not to plunge down as well.

"Thanks love..." she said, shocked and out of breath from the fear, "How'd you do that?"

"Maybe I'll teach you some time!" Denley said with a laugh, "Come on, we still have a ways to go."

With that, the two successfully climbed the rest of the way down without incident. Weapons in hand, they followed the noises, heel to toe, without a sound, darting through the dark jungle canopy that now surrounded them. The creatures in pursuit were having trouble navigating this area, it slowed them down, almost as if they weren't from around here. As Denley and Tika got closer to the commotion, that thought was confirmed.

"Where'd he go?" a man called out.

"If I knew, I'd be blasting him, dumbass." another replied.

"Shut your stupid ass up," the first one barked, "It's your fault we lost him."

"He tried to bite me!" the second one said defensively, "What would you have done?"

"I dunno," the first one said, "Maybe shot straight?"

"Oh I can shoot straight," the second said, "I'll show you. I don't hear him running anymore, must be tired, start looking in the brush."

Clones. Denley had hoped he wouldn't see these guys again. The two clones had stopped running and were now combing the immediate area for something, using the lights on their helmets and rifles, easily giving away their positions.

"They're idiots..." Tika noted quietly, "Hard to believe these are the same guys who wiped out the Jedi."

"Yeah," Denley replied, "Wonder what they're doing here. None of our business though, we should stay out of their way."

"Oh shit there he is!" the second clone called out to his ally.

Now with their curiosity even more piqued, the pair continued to watch as the clones pushed through more foliage and shined their lights on a tiny Rancor, about the size of an Ugnaught. It was clearly terrified of these soldiers, and didn't try to put up any kind of fight. The two soldiers laughed and reveled in their victory.

"We need to stop this." Tika said as she readied her spear.

"No tools," Denley cautioned, "If the bodies are found with tool marks, they'll come looking for us. I have an idea."

With time clearly working against them, Denley used every ounce of skill he had to influence the mind of one of the soldiers. It was a technique he hadn't much practice on, but he didn't have time to worry about it, he had to act fast.

"What are you doing man?" the first soldier asked, "It's your kill, what are you waiting for?"

"I..." the second one said, "I don't feel right."

"It's that stuff that you had the other day," the first one reasoned, "I don't trust the fruit on this planet."

Now with their minds drawn away from the little Rancor, they became easier to manipulate. With his hands trembling, the second soldier slowly raised his gun at the first soldier's chest.

"Hey..." the first soldier said, frightened, "I know I made fun of you for not shooting straight but this isn't the way to prove me-"

He didn't get to finish his sentence before the second soldier opened fire, striking the other over and over again with automatic fire, shredding him to pieces. A deathly silence filled the air, but only for a few moments, as the second soldier became conscious of what he'd just done. Confused at the whole ordeal, he collapsed to his knees in shock, tightly grasping his helmet as he removed it and tossed it aside.

"Oh god..." he said, "Why the hell did I just kill him?!" he screamed into the unforgiving jungle.

"I'm not done with him yet..." Denley said.

"How am I gonna explain this to the Sarge?" the soldier asked out loud.

He wouldn't have to, as the man was suddenly taken over by an unstoppable feeling compelling him to pull out his sidearm, which he did. With no hesitation, the clone quickly shot himself in the temple, killing himself instantly. Their time with the Empire had turned the once honorable clones into psychotic killing machines, or maybe they always were, and were now simply let off their leashes. Denley wondered if any of these clones had any good in them.

"Woah," Tika said, "That was kind of messed up. I get it, but damn."

"It'll look exactly how it went down," Denley replied coldly, "One of them went crazy, gunned the other down, couldn't live with himself. Maybe they'll think it was a malfunction in the clone's brain, who cares, they won't think about us at all. It had to be done, it was them or the Rancor."

"Speaking of," Tika said with a hand on her man's shoulder, "We should greet it, try and tend to it if it'll let us."

With the threat of the clones now eliminated, Denley and Tika stood up from the foliage and walked over to the frightened Rancor cub, which they could now more closely examine. It was quite young, its head was nearly parallel with its shoulders, meaning it was probably only a couple months old. Aside from looking like it had been a hot minute since its last meal, this Rancor seemed to be in decent health. Thankfully it didn't appear to have any blaster marks on it, it was just afraid. The two knelt down next to the young creature, and Denley watched as Tika began an old witch tradition.

"Are you going to control it?" Denley asked.

"Not necessarily..." Tika explained, "We want our Rancors to be with us of their own free will. We don't want slaves. I'm trying to see if this one has a mother around here somewhere, maybe it got separated."

Carefully, as to not accidentally provoke the young cub, Tika showed the creature her hand, then held out an open palm for the Rancor to put its hand in hers. It hesitated, but appeared to come to some realization, either that they were not a threat, or that they had eliminated the clones through magic. In any case, Denley was taken aback by how intelligent these things were, he really had no idea. The Rancor murmured a little, just enough for Tika to understand.

"This Rancor was taught well by his mother," she said, "He has a decent grasp on their vocalizations. Unfortunately, it seems as if this one lost his mother just yesterday, in that case he's really lucky to still be alive, the jungle is teeming with things that would love to just eat him up. I'm going to try to convince him to come home with us, help me, would you?"

"How can I help?" Denley asked, "It's not quite the same as a mind trick."

"He needs to gain the trust from both of us," she replied, "see that we have good intentions and that he can be okay with us. Hold your hand out to him."

"Hey I think Rancors are cool and all," Denley began, "I respect them... but uh... putting my hand out to one?"

"Oh come on," Tika teased, "I thought you were my big strong man! Look, I put my hand out to him and I'm fine! The worst he'll do is pinch you or maybe give you a little nibble, nothing serious."

"Alright..." Denley relented.

After slowly outstretching an open palm, and looking into the little Rancor's eyes with sincere care and respect, the two did what they could to show him that everything was alright. Denley could instantly feel the connection, and didn't have to break eye contact with it to know that Tika had made her progress as well. It didn't take a whole lot of time, but the Rancor grinned a little and exhaled through its nose a few times, then fully came out from the brush, still holding onto their hands.

"I take it he's cool with us now." Denley observed.

"Yep!" Tika said, "Easy, huh? I love Rancors."

"The rest of the galaxy should see them like this, how they really are back on their homeworld." Denley said with a smile.

"Aww..." Tika said, "We totally won you over."

"What can I say?" Denley admitted, "Being one of the only guys in a tribe full of beautiful women has its perks."

The rest of the walk back to the Zoni Tribe territory went by without incident, only with the occasional stop so that the tiny Rancor could sniff around some trees and such. With a new addition to their tribe in their hands, Denley and Tika were back home, the rest of the witches were out and about, doing their various tasks. Everyone was now used to Denley's presence, and his affection for Tika, so most of the teasing had subsided. However, he noticed some of the witches were glancing over at him, then quickly looking away, as if he'd done something wrong.

"What's going on?" Denley quietly asked Tika.

"I'm not sure," she replied, "I noticed it too."

"Kane." someone said.

Denley spun around, spotting Sister Kellt a couple feet away. In the years since he'd arrived on Dathomir, he was never able to figure out how she was always able to sneak up on him. Though this time, it didn't appear to be for fun, or intentional. Kellt had a look of sorrow in her eyes, and it seemed she was trying to be subtle as to not embarrass Denley in front of the witches.

"The Elders need to speak with you..." she said, "Tika, why don't we introduce this new Rancor to the rest?"

"What's happening?" Tika asked, ignoring Kellt's obvious distraction.

"I'll tell you later, sister." Kellt promised.

It was concerning, to say the least. Tika looked up at Denley with a worried look in her eyes. Normally those puppy dog eyes of hers were so full of energy, but they spoke louder than words to Denley now. He took her hands in his and locked eyes with her.

"I'll see what they want," he said, "I'll come find you, okay?"

"Okay..." she said.

After giving her a big kiss on the forehead, Denley let go of his lover's hands and headed in the direction of the Elders' longhouse, the only one with two chimneys protruding off the roof, constantly pumping out a mix of fumes that were the result of their highly advanced alchemy. Carefully pushing open the longhouse's cloth tent-style entrance, Denley was greeted by the three Zoni Village Elders, who all nodded to him as he entered. All three of the Elders were dressed in musky, brown hooded cloaks, and were easily in their late nineties, with long gray hair, sunken eyes, and frail figures, though they were all still very lucid and aware of their surroundings. They probably still had quite some time before they could be considered senile, as they were able to still pick up on many subtleties, even when speaking with a Jedi like Denley. The three wise Elders sat cross legged on separate platforms that were raised about two feet or so off the ground, with pits of burning sage on each end of the line of three platforms. Denley's eyes adjusted to the darkness as he walked to the center of the room and knelt down on one knee as a sign of respect.

"Kane..." Elder Kazin said, "Fate has led the Imperials back to you, twice today."

Denley tilted his head in confusion, not in an attempt to lie, but in wondering how she could have known about the incidents already.

"The mind of a Jedi..." Elder Vera began, "Often the easiest to read. Your kind are arrogant, you don't hide your thoughts well because you assume you have a the superior mind."

"My kind?" Denley said, almost sounding offended, "I'm one of you now."

"That is why we have convened..." Elder Mora said, "This is a very important decision."

"What are you trying to say?" Denley asked as politely as he could.

"NO!" Tika shouted from in the distance, "YOU CAN'T MAKE HIM LEAVE!"

Denley stood up in shock and confusion. An uncomfortable silence hit the Elders' Chambers, not only because the distant outburst ruined any chance of letting Denley down easy, but also because everyone knew Tika would probably be joining the discussion very soon. That thought proved correct as the hysterical girl burst into the Elders' Chambers, tears streaming down her beautiful pale face.

"Why are you doing this?!" she demanded.

"Hey," Denley cautioned, "Don't get yourself into any-"

"No I want to know what's going on!" Tika shouted over him.

Without a word, the three Elders all looked at one another in annoyance. Denley wasn't sure if they would consider Tika's tone and choice of words to be worthy of a punishment of any kind, it was enough that he was facing some sort of punishment of his own, the last thing he wanted for his distraught lover to face anything similar.

"The Imperials have come to Dathomir..." Elder Mora began, "They have brought their machines of war and their soldiers to bastardize the land."

"They won't know it was us that took out two of their troops," Denley said, "It'll look like a murder-suicide."

"That is not the point, my child..." Elder Kazin said, "The Empire is likely to stick around. You may not be so lucky to dispatch them the next time you encounter them. Having a fugitive of the Empire in our ranks is a risk we can no longer afford to take."

"So you're just going to send him out on his own?" Tika asked, choking back some tears, "If he dies out there, that's on you!"

"We think Kane understands..." Elder Vera said, looking to the young Jedi.

Tika looked up at her lover and could see it in his eyes, he accepted the truth of the situation, even though he didn't like it.

"No," Tika said, "You can't just go!"

"It's better to have you miss me and be alive, than be with me and wind up dead..." Denley explained, "I lost my master to the Empire, all of my people, my future with the Jedi Order. I don't think I'd be able to handle knowing I got anyone here killed too, especially you. That would be enough to push me over the edge."

"There has to be another way..." Tika said as she looked at Denley, then to the Elders, who seemed to be full of sorrow themselves.

"We wish there was..." Elder Mora said, "We can give you the rest of the day. In the morning, you will have access to the Separatist Shuttle we took from the factory, it will take you where you need to go."

"Thank you..." Denley said, "For the time and the ship, it's more than I could have asked for in this situation."

"It's the least we could do for a son worthy of the Zoni Tribe..." Elder Vera said, "Cherish the time you have left here today."

"Take care, Denley..." Elder Kazin said.

With a polite nod of respect, albeit with a look of sadness, Denley turned and left the tent, hand in hand with his distraught lover. The other witches did their best to not stare, knowing the gravity of the situation and in an attempt to not be rude. The two headed back to their tent and sat in silence for a while, embracing each other as long as they could, knowing they didn't have much time left.

Night fell, the two didn't get much sleep, how could they? With the terrifying reality hanging over them, it cast a dark shadow on an already dark night.

"Where are you going to go?" Tika asked quietly, breaking the silence.

"Gand." Denley said, "I'll see if I can find a job with some spacers. It'll be good to be on the move, stay busy, you know?"

"I won't be able to stop worrying about you..." she admitted, "How am I supposed to live with that?"

"You girls taught me a lot in these two years," he replied, "It'll keep me alive."

"It better." she said, cracking a smile for the first time since the news broke.

"There it is." Denley said with a smile of his own.

"You made the right decision to continue your training outside the Jedi Code..." Tika said, "But don't let your darkness corrupt you."

"I won't," Denley swore, "I promise."

**Location: A cantina on The Compound Eye, an orbital station above Gand, in the Outer Rim**

**Time: 2 Days Later**

_Eeeeaaaugghh..._

Denley could feel his head spinning. Perhaps it would have been a good idea to make sure his first time drinking went a little smoother. Wasn't this stuff supposed to make the bad times a little easier? Then again, this foreign swill that was sat in front of him was made by creatures of an entirely different genetic makeup. He wondered if Insectoids were more capable of holding down this type of liquor, though these thoughts did little to distract himself from the feeling of the whole galaxy spinning.

_Get a grip on yourself, Denley... _he thought to himself, _it's just chemicals, you're supposed to be a Jedi!_

What an interesting test. As he tried to purge his head of the drink's effects, he could sense a group of four beings entering the cantina, all decently armed, but none seemed to have any bad intentions, at least none that he could tell. Two of them were green skinned Niktos, one tall and one short. One of them was a pretty gruff 30-something human with fair skin and messy red hair, with plenty of battle scars decorating his mean looking face. As intimidating as this one was, he didn't seem to be the leader, no, that role appeared to go to the Dashade.

This one had definitely seem some miles. It was hard to guess his age, as Denley had never seen one of his species before, but he assumed by the tone of his voice that he was middle aged. The Dashade led his men to the opposite side of the bar as he seemed to be mocking someone they had recently encountered, much to the amusement of his men. Their obnoxious laughter made Denley's head rattle, and he considered just paying for his drink and leaving, but got an idea.

"Excuse me, sir." Denley said to the Gand bartender.

"Yes?" the insectoid replied politely as he continued loading one of the dishwashers.

"Are any of the Guild outposts on the surface worth checking out?" Denley asked, projecting his voice towards the crew without being too obvious, "I don't usually hunt around these parts, but I hear you guys hire offworlders to track down rogue findsmen, could use a challenge."

"Gand do that as a test for the findsmen, not for the offworlders..." the bartender stated as politely as possible, "No human has ever survived."

"Yeah because all they ever hire are hillbillies with toy blasters and cattle prods." Denley said, "I can handle myself."

"Gand does not doubt Human's abilities, Gand only attempts to warn the human." the bartender explained, "There is a station in the city nearest to the Compound Eye's tether, Gand believes that would be the human's best bet."

Trying to make a good impression, Denley downed the rest of his drink without making a funny face, then put down the credits for his drink, as well as a generous tip, then stood up and walked away from the bar without looking at the gang, who had definitely overheard the conversation. Now everything seemed to be spinning in two directions, but he still managed to make his way to the restroom, which was surprisingly clean given the fact that it was operated by insects.

_Is that racist of me? _he wondered as he chuckled to himself. Not long after washing up, he could sense someone approaching, a familiar presence, one of the crew members no doubt. Sure enough, the door opened up, and the red headed human crew member from earlier entered the restroom and made no attempt to hide the fact he was looking for Denley.

"How's it going?" the man asked.

"Sorry man," Denley slurred in a slightly exaggerated tone, "Ain't got anything for ya."

"I'm not looking for money," the man said, amused, "My friends and I couldn't help but overhear you're looking for Guild work. You some kind of freelancer?"

"I'm off the clock right now," Denley answered, "But yeah I get around, wherever there's a challenge, otherwise what's the point?"

"Those bugs are a little more than just a challenge..." the man warned, "A lone wolf like you's bound to end up skewered by one of those rogue findsmen if that's what you're after."

"Not my first job, pal," Denley replied, "besides there's money to be made, those findsmen ain't gonna find themselves? Heh, heh, get it? Nice talking with ya, man." he said as he politely made his way past the man.

"Why don't I introduce you to the guys?" the man offered, "Maybe they'll have something for ya, other than a bug hunt."

Denley stopped in his tracks, and couldn't help but grin, this dude was putty in his hands, so predictable. He wiped the look off his face before turning back to the man.

"Sure, why not?" he said, "I've got a little time to kill."


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6 – New Friends**

**Location: The Compound Eye, an orbital station above Gand, in the Outer Rim  
Time: 17 Years Before the Battle of Yavin, 2 Years After Order 66**

The rowdy gang of spacers seemed pretty interested in Denley, who kept his past intentionally vague. He thought the quiet approach was probably the way to go, all they needed to know was that he could handle the job, whatever that happened to be. He also thought going by the name Gerrard Kull was a safer bet than using his real name, given his current relationship with the Empire. Not that these guys were running background checks for their crew, but another layer of caution never hurt anyone.

Together, the five men sat at the bar, chatting it up and running up their tabs more and more, not only in an attempt to enjoy their time between jobs, but also to get to know their potential new recruit before making a final decision on his employment.

"I've seen that look before...", said the Dashade, Mel, "Lose a girl, newbie?"

"Something like that." Denley replied, snapping out of his distant thoughts.

"Ha, that's why you're not supposed to get attached." said Glen, the red haired human.

"That's what I was always told." Denley said before taking another drink.

"Nice E-5..." said Makil, the shorter of the two Niktos, "I haven't seen one of those since the Clone Wars."

"Yeah it's reliable," Denley said as he looked down at the piece in his holster, "it's about the only thing the Seps got right."

"If only they could have programmed their droids better, they might have won." Glen said sincerely, making Denley wonder if he was from a Separatist world.

"They weren't all pushovers," Denley replied honestly, "I wouldn't write them off so easy."

"You ever go up against any?" asked Shafto, the taller of the two Niktos.

"Some of the harder jobs I took back in the day put me in their path a couple times..." Denley said, "Where do you think I got the blaster?"

"Sounds like you can handle yourself, kid!" Mel said as he patted Denley on the back, "You can tag along if you want, we'll see where things go from there."

"What's the job?" Denley asked.

"We'll talk about it on the way there," Mel said, "It's, uh, less than legal."

"I don't give a damn about the law," Denley said sternly as he looked Mel in the eyes, "There's no money in it."

"He's got spunk..." Shafto said with a chuckle, "He's got my vote."

"We'll see..." Mel said as he finished his drink, "Well boys, finish what you've got and let's hit the road."

With that, Glen and Makil raced one another to finish theirs before the other. Aside from brief grunting as they tried to stomach the hard liquor so quickly, the two held their own and stood up to follow Mel and Shafto out the door.

"Are patrons going to pay?" the Gand bartender called out sternly.

"Is Gand gonna make us?" Mel taunted as he turned back to the bartender and patted his blaster on his belt, much to the amusement of the rest of the gang.

After finishing his drink, Denley quietly pulled out some credits to cover the gang's drinks, as well as a nice tip for the bartender. He didn't mind, he'd made a decent amount earlier in the day after selling a bunch of extra Separatist weapons he'd had stashed away on the ship. He made sure the gang didn't see him pay for the drinks, maybe they'd think of it as a sign of weakness and reconsider hiring him for whatever this job was going to be. The bartender nodded his otherwise emotionless insectoid head in appreciation as Denley got up and followed the gang out of the bar and towards the landing platforms.

"Where's your ship, Gerrard?" Mel asked.

"It's the shuttle on D34," Denley answered, "I'll get a few things from there and meet you guys at your ship."

"Sounds good." Mel said.

"We're on C23," Makil said, slurring his words a little, "We won't wait around forever though!"

"Won't be long, see ya in a few." Denley said as he headed towards his ship.

Even as he headed away from the group, he could sense their thoughts. They didn't seem to suspect anything so far, perhaps due to their inebriation, or maybe his acting skills were better than he gave himself credit for. His own thoughts still dwelled on Tika and Dathomir, that was a lot harder to hide than the rest of it, even Mel had noticed it earlier.

_Is it written on my face or something? _Denley wondered as he lowered the ramp to his shuttle and stepped inside.

He couldn't deny that he missed his life with the tribe of witches back on Dathomir. In a lot of ways, it felt so much more like home than the Jedi Temple on Coruscant ever did. He felt like his understanding of the Force grew exponentially under the guidance of the Nightsisters, it was a fresh new perspective. Plus, love, what an intoxicating feeling, it gave him a feeling of purpose the Jedi just never gave him. He understood the concept of temptation but came to realize the longing of love was something most sentient creatures carried with them, and that no amount of training could truly purge it from themselves. He was done trying to purge it from himself, that much he was sure of.

Denley took one last look at the interior of the shuttle, as he had a feeling he wouldn't be returning to it. He held no attachments to it, and figured his adventure with the gang would probably take him far away from it and negate the need for the shuttle in the first place. It would probably be repossessed by the Gand and either sold or trashed. He didn't care, if anything it was a good thing, one less way for his past to be traced back anywhere.

He made sure to grab his backpack, which one of the witches had made for him. He loaded it up with as much clothes and food as he could, leaving just enough room for his lightsaber, which he tucked away at the very bottom just to be safe. Before leaving, he made sure to wipe the navigational data from the systems, then abandoned the shuttle and headed towards the Corellian style lightweight ship docked on C23.

The gang wasted no time taking off and plotting their course for hyperspace. It seemed like these guys had seen a lot of lightyears, not even strapping themselves in for the jump or admiring the view. In fact, they let their droid take care of it for them as most of them headed off to bed to sleep off the effects of their drinks. Only Mel stayed up to sit in the ship's main hold, which had a very basic kitchen and an entertainment section with some very dirty tables and various holographic games. Denley sat down at the least dirty of these tables.

"We're heading to Byss," Mel said, "It'll be about six hours, we've programmed the route to avoid the sectors with Imperial presence."

"Byss, never heard of it." Denley said honestly.

"There's not much there, or really anything in that part of the Outer Rim..." Mel said, "The Hutts control a lot of the area, that should tell you about the type of business that goes on in those parts. Byss is very backwater, there aren't any signs of civilization there, no cities, no spaceports, nothing. Only thing worth noting about it is the heat."

"Sounds like a pretty discrete job then." Denley noted.

"It is, the Hutts have some cargo they need us to pick up for them," Mel explained, "It's not a particularly dangerous job as long as you have the right guys with ya, that's why we wanted to have a fifth set of hands on deck for this one."

"That's why you brought him aboard?" the pilot droid called out, "I thought he was just some drifter. We don't need a fifth crewman for a pickup job."

"I already told you I'm not interested in a droid's opinion!" Mel called out, "That's X2, we won him in a card game on Taris, not often you come across a GE-3 these days."

"I'm still pissed about it." X2 called back.

"You've got quite a crew here," Denley said, "I'm ready to see you guys in action."

"Same goes for you, droid killer." Mel said with a smile.

"Droid killer?" X2 asked from afar.

"Just some battle droids, X2..." Denley said, "They had it coming!"

"Well we should have you well rested by the time we get there," Mel said as he stood up, "Sleep off those drinks, we got a spare room, it's the one on the left in the middle. I'm gonna call it a night myself."

"Alright Mel," Denley said, "Thank you for the accommodations."

Denley wouldn't exactly call it a good night's sleep. Not even due to the quality of the room, it was everything else in his racing mind, it wasn't enough for even the most disciplined Jedi to overcome. His time on Dathomir, the thought of being caught by the Empire, his current spot in a crew of spacers on an illegal mission flying through hyperspace. He'd have to just take what sleep he got, which was just a couple of moments of drifting off here and there.

The bed, which was a cushioned metal plate that could be folded and slid into the wall for storage, was one of the only noteworthy things in this room, aside from a metal wardrobe that was built into the floor. Every now and then, some of the ungrounded electricity could be heard in the ceiling above the bed, which didn't help the sleeping situation.

_Might be better if Tika was here too... _he thought.

He could sense that they were coming out of hyperspace, time to get serious. Shortly after this realization, two light knocks came at the door.

"Gerrard," X2 called out, "Time to earn your keep!"

With a short groan, Denley got up out of bed and began gearing up for the mission. With his blaster in its holster on his belt and short sleeved shirt to accommodate for the planet's heat, he started to head out, but hesitated for a second, pondering whether or not to bring his lightsaber along for the journey. It was out of the question to have it out in the open where the gang could see it, but it might be better to have it and not need it, than to need it and not have it.

With the blade still sitting safely at the bottom of the bag, Denley picked up the backpack and put it on, just to be safe. A quick tap on the wall panel and the door slid open for him, right as Glen was passing by through the hall on his way out. Everyone amazingly seemed to be ready to go, even after a night of drinking and then sleeping on this ship, on those beds. Just another routine day for these guys, and Denley knew if he wanted to survive, he'd probably have to get used to things too.

Together, the five spacers all left the ship and were immediately hit with just how hot and dry this place was. The earth beneath their feet was dusty and loose under their weight, cracked in all directions with a consistent light tone. The ship was parked on top of a hill that, if it were a building, seemed that it would be at an elevation of maybe three stories. There were large, jagged rocks everywhere, the same color as the ground, dotting the entire hill and most of the ground below.

"We wanted to put her down somewhere away from the action," Mel said, "Keep her away from prying eyes, you know?"

"There's no one out here." Denley said.

The spacers laughed, Denley didn't get the joke. Nobody explained anything as they set off down the hill, careful not to slip and tumble down for a world of hurt. Denley's keen senses allowed him to overtake the group with ease, still minding every step but clearly showing off his superior agility and balance. He reached the bottom of the hill as the rest of the group was only halfway down, giving him plenty of time to survey the area alone, just enough to see that a smaller hill was only a short walk away. At its base, what looked to be a large stone slab was crudely placed in front of an entryway.

"Hey I think there's a cave over there." Denley called back to the group.

"He's learning." Makil said with a laugh.

"That's why we're here," Mel explained, "If there is a cave there, we'll start there."

"What do you mean we'll start there?" Denley asked, "Do we not know where we're picking up our cargo?"

"We're getting paid to find it," Shafto explained, "This isn't your first job is it?"

Denley didn't even feel the need to answer, so he ignored the Nikto and continued looking at the cave's entrance. The crew finally caught up with him and looked to where he was referring to.

"Oh yeah," Mel said, now seeing what Denley was seeing, "That's got to be a good one."

"How'd you get down here so fast?" Glen said out of breath as he finally reached the bottom.

"Discipline." Denley said as he followed the gang to the cave just up ahead.

As soon as the team reached the entrance, Mel and Shafto wasted no time in working to move the massive stone that was blocking their path. At first, they pried at it with their hands, but it was no use. Mel then got on one end of the stone and pulled with both hands as Shafto got on the other end and pushed up against it with his back. Still nothing.

"Come on guys," Makil groaned, "Give me some room."

Makil moved in alongside Mel in helping pull, which seemed to make the stone budge a little. This was clearly very deliberately placed there by something strong to keep things out.

"What could have put this here?" Denley asked.

"The locals." Glen answered.

As if on cue, a collection of large shrieks rang out from inside the cave and began to move closer to the entrance. It startled the group and caused them to stop pulling on the stone for a moment, but only for a moment, as the hesitation subsided and was met with joy from the rest of the group.

"Sounds like lots of them!" Mel shouted gleefully.

"Two thousand a head, and I hear at least three of those suckers in there!" Makil added.

"Payday, boys!" Glen said as he readied his gun.

They finally managed to force the stone all the way off its balance and toss it aside onto the ground just before the locals could stop them. Sunlight now poured into the cave, revealing four very gaunt, primitive green skinned aliens, some with facial hair, some not, but all with a single eye in the middle of their foreheads, gazing up at the spacers in horror. Denley had only heard of Abyssins, they were such a rare species in the galaxy that their name hadn't even clicked in his head when he heard they would be going to Byss.

"Uh..." Denley began, only to be interrupted by the shouts of the gang as they raised their guns at the helpless cave dwellers.

"GET OUT HERE GODDAMNIT!" Glen screamed.

"ALL OF YOU, OUT!" Shafto shouted as well.

Though it was unlikely any of the Abyssin here spoke any Galactic Basic, the guns and shouting were pretty universal, so they obeyed. With hands raised, the Abyssin all left the cave and were herded against the outside cave wall by the men. As Denley reeled in disgust at what he was seeing, he noticed a fifth Abyssin up on the hill just above the spacers. Mel noticed him too and raised his gun as the Abyssin readied his spear to defend his people.

"NO DON'T SHOOT HIM!" Denley shouted.

Mel either didn't have time to listen, or didn't care, as he pulled the trigger, emitting a flash of blue light that struck the Abyssin in the chest and sent him crashing down to the ground below like a stiff ragdoll.

"Got him!" Mel said, "He's just stunned, Denley, don't worry, we'll get paid for this one too."

"Holy shit man..." Makil said, "We just hit the bank, boys!"

"So this is what you guys do?" Denley asked, "Slavery?"

"These people barely have access to water..." Mel began as he cuffed the incapacitated Abyssin, "They've never even seen electricity before. They'll prosper more as servants of the Hutts than they ever would here. You gonna help us book 'em?"

"Yeah, hang on a sec..." Denley said as he went through his backpack.

The gang all gave him confused but dismissive looks as they began cuffing the rest of the Abyssin. Mel finished first and raised his gun at the rest of the cyclopes in case any of them tried to fight back. He was standing the closest, so he'd have to be the first to go. Denley found his blade, and in one swift motion, tossed the bag aside and activated his lightsaber at the same time. Mel didn't even have time to process what was happening before he was cleaved in half from waist to shoulder, killing him instantly.

Makil didn't have time to raise his gun before Denley swung the blade back in the other direction, beheading the helpless Nikto. Glen, however, had time to react and focused his blaster at Denley, popping off a shot that would have gotten most folks, but Denley's Jedi instincts kicked in, allowing him to deflect the shot right back at Glen's face, killing him as well. In less than three seconds, it all came down to just Denley and Shafto. Shafto was no fool and knew what he was dealing with. He hid behind one of the Abyssin and pressed his blaster against the innocent cyclops' head.

"Think I won't?!" Shafto shouted with a tremble in his voice, "Don't make me do it!"

He didn't have to. Denley reached out and used the Force to pull the gun from Shafto's hand, rendering him defenseless. Before he could make a decision on what to do with the slaver, the uncuffed Abyssin all dove towards Shafto, tearing him apart limb from limb, his blood-curdling screams doing nothing to stop their relentless attack.

_I was just starting to get used to these guys too... _Denley thought as he turned off his blade and clipped it to his belt where it belonged. He then went over to Mel's corpse and dug around for the key to the cuffs. A couple of credits in his pants pocket, nothing in the back pocket, and in the shirt pocket, the keys! Cautiously, Denley approached the group of Abyssin, who were probably very confused as to what was going on, having assumed he was one of the slavers as well. They didn't currently seem to have any desire to attack him, so he went ahead and unlocked the cuffs on the wrists of the ones who had been restrained. The incapacitated Abyssin began to awaken now and examined all of the dead slavers, as well as their savior who was freeing them from their bonds. All together, they bowed in respect, one of them grunted something in its strange language.

"I really don't know what that means." Denley said, only to be answered by another Abyssin's grunts, "Or that... Follow me, I've... oh what's the point? You probably don't understand me either."

Denley motioned with his hand to follow him, which the Abyssin were all understandably hesitant to do, but decided to obey. Together, they all headed back up the hill to the ship, where X2 was waiting patiently at the ramp.

"Oh snap, look out behind you!" X2 exclaimed, pointing at the group of Abyssin.

"They're with me." Denley said.

"Wow, you managed to get them to go peacefully, huh?" X2 noticed, almost sounding impressed, "Where's the rest of the group."

"They're dead." Denley stated.

"Nice, was it the locals?" X2 asked with no remorse.

"No it was me," Denley explained "Which means you belong to me now."

"Damn," X2 said, sounding disappointed, "And here I was thinking you were gonna set me free."

"Day's not over yet..." Denley said, "I need you to talk to these guys for me."

"What, you think all of us bipedal droids can just be your little translators?" X2 asked, almost offended.

"Am I wrong in this case?" Denley asked.

"Well, no..." X2 admitted, "But do you think we all happen to have Abyssin programmed into us? Out of all the countless widely spoken languages, you think we can translate what these rare cave dwellers have to say?"

"Do you not have that ability?" Denley asked.

"I mean I do..." X2 admitted again, "But if I didn't, you'd be pretty shit out of luck, am I right?"

"You got it man." Denley said with a smile.

"I don't suppose you know where the gang has their restraining bolt clip, do you?" X2 asked, "Unless these primates plan on camping out right here, I'll need my restraining bolt removed. You do know where the clip is, don't you?"

"Not right off, no." Denley said.

"I don't suppose you could have asked them that before you killed them." X2 scolded.

"Not gonna lie..." Denley explained, "You weren't really on my mind when I took those guys out. Besides, I won't need the clip, just hold still."

"That's improper removal protocol, Gerrard!" X2 exclaimed, "If you strip it and get it stuck, I'm going to be pissed."

"Shut up, just stop talking." Denley said as he carefully removed the restraining bolt from X2's chest.

"Ahhh..." X2 said, "Much better. They didn't want me leaving the ramp, said they didn't trust me in the cockpit where I could steal the ship, or to leave the ramp and run off on my own. Anyway, I'll translate for ya, though I have to admit I'd really rather not be doing this, these savages are hardly worth our time. Besides, how are you going to make any money with them? They probably don't even know what credits are!"

Denley looked back to the cyclopes, who were probably trying to piece together what was happening between their laser-sword wielding savior and his chatty metal friend. The looks of awe on their faces was kind of sweet and innocent, just looks of childlike curiosity.

"Uh, tell them these slavers are dead," Denley began, "But there will probably be more to replace them. Tell them I can help them fight back against the next wave of slavers, if they can teach me some things."

Surprisingly, X2 didn't have any smartass remarks, and did as Denley asked. X2's robotic voice almost startled Denley when the barks and growls of the Abyssin language emitted from the protocol droid. The Abyssin nodded as X2 spoke, listening carefully and looking at one another to gauge their reactions. The eldest of the five, the one who had been incapacitated earlier, spoke up first.

"He wants to know what they could even teach you..." X2 translated, "I have to agree with him, I really don't-"

"Yeah yeah I know," Denley interrupted, "Ask them if they can show me how they hunt, and how they spar with one another, how they survive in these unforgiving conditions."

X2 obeyed and translated to the best of his ability. The eldest Abyssin smiled a little and nodded, no need for translation there. Denley smiled back and extended his hand for a handshake, but halfway through realized the cyclopes probably didn't do handshakes. To his surprise, the eldest Abyssin accepted the handshake with a very strong grip, overestimating Denley's human fragility. Out of respect, Denley held in the urge to shriek in pain, though he had a feeling they noticed, but didn't judge him for it.


End file.
